Tulsa Animal Welfare Commission Meeting - August 10, 2026
Tulsa Animal Welfare Commission Meeting - August 10, 2026
The Tulsa Animal Welfare Commission met on August 10, 2026, at 5:30 PM. The meeting was called to order with Commissioners Burkett, Hall, and Queensweiler present. Animal Services Director Sherry Carrier provided updates on the new facility, a discussion on meeting frequency, and a status report on the Clear the Shelters campaign. No public comments were made.
Consent Calendar
- The commission unanimously approved the minutes from the July 2026 meeting.
Discussion Items
- New Animal Services Facility Update: Director Carrier reported that doors, ceiling drywall, and kennel areas are installed. The project remains on track to receive keys by the end of September 2026. A large adoption event is planned before the move. Tours have been given to city councilors and partners; commissioners suggested inviting former council members instrumental in funding.
- Meeting Frequency Change: The agenda item proposed moving to every-other-month meetings, but the city ordinance requires at least two regular meetings per calendar quarter. After discussion about the prescriptive language and potential quorum issues, the commission decided to seek legal clarification and bring a revised action item with correct language to the next meeting. A motion to approve this approach passed unanimously.
- Clear the Shelters August Update: Adoption fees are waived all month. The shelter achieved a 98% save rate in the previous week. Best Friends Animal Society is offering reimbursement of $150 per adoption during a window in late August. Director Carrier noted that save rates fluctuate and the long-term trend is around 82-83%. Other topics included the impact of spay/neuter, a newly approved surrender fee (awaiting mayoral signature), and the hiring of additional Animal Control Officers for North Tulsa (not yet started).
Key Outcomes
- The July 2026 meeting minutes were approved.
- A motion to postpone the meeting frequency change to the next meeting after legal review was approved unanimously.
- No other votes were taken.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public spoke.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. I'd like to welcome you to the August 10th, five thirty meeting of the Animal Tulsa Animal Welfare Commission. You can view this on Cox Channel Twenty Four and also on TGov Online dot org. And we will now uh call the meeting to order. Roll call, please. Burkett present. Hall present. Queensweiler present. And then we'd like to introduce uh Sherry Carrier, our animal services director. And we will go to the approval of the minutes. Is it everyone had a chance to review the minutes? And is there any discussion? I moved to approve the minutes of our July meeting. Second. All right. We've had it for first. I'm just done. Yeah. And you said yes, yes, Queenswiler. Yes, motion passes. Actually, one more before the okay, yes. Update number three. New animal services facility update. You can look. Doors installed, ceiling, drywall, and kennel areas. Um very different from where we had the presentation here and you saw what was going on now. Things are really starting to come together, and uh every week it's just kind of mind blowing of how far they've come in such a short amount of time. So we're still on track for getting the keys by the end of September. Awesome, and then we'll kind of see what the path is moving forward to when we think we would be able to get in there with you know everybody, everything, and of course, all the animals. Um we also plan on doing um well, this month is clear of the shelters, which I'll talk about in a little bit. But we also want to do a very large adoption event before we we try to move to get animals out, so that'll be something we'll talk about too. Right. So super exciting. Who are the folks coming to see it and get tours? Are these potential funders? Uh I've invited a lot of our partners have come. Good, good, good. The city counselors have been coming. Um their staff. Um our team, of course. Of course, which they're very, very, very happy about it, uh, especially the people that have been there for a long time. So of course um, I don't know if they really thought this would be reality at any time since it's been a little while in the making, but they're very excited about it. Well, if we can get Connie Dodson, Christa Patrick and Genie Q out, they were so instrumental in getting the funding going. Yeah, you're in office. And that's to get them to the opening, but if if you're just doing a walkthrough at some point, they are so excited about it. I know they would love to be included. Oh, yeah, I'm sure, you know, especially for the whenever the grand opening will be. Yes. We'll have a lot of people that have been involved in this process for a while. So well, it wouldn't happen without them.
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