Commissioner George Kruse said the donation of the Bishop Animal Shelter to Manatee County in 2021 was both a blessing and a curse.
The donation, valued at $18 million, increased the county’s capacity to take animals off the streets and led to the closing of the outdated Palmetto Animal Shelter. But the expansion efforts created a public firestorm and took focus away from the original plan to build a brick and mortar shelter in East County.
Given repeated complaints by some animal advocates and a Change.org petition signed by over 2,000 residents about the donated shelter’s expansion, which includes a new adoption center and eight 15-kennel cottages, Kruse would like to renew the East County effort…