Pest control to pause animal intake at county shelter

TAMPA Forget the never-ending battle against fleas and ticks, Hillsborough County Animal Services is about to launch an attack on another insidious insect: termites.

The offices, shelter and related programs in the complex on Falkenburg Road, which on any given day can house up to 400 strays or unwanted pets, are about to be tented and fumigated. That means all the homeless dogs and cats will be moved to temporary shelters, located on the rear of the property, for about a week early next month, and the shelter will not accept surrendered pets for more than two weeks.

We should be able to make it through without a major impact, said Hillsborough County Animal Services Director Scott Trebatoski. We dont want to put animals at risk during this temporary relocation.

Months ago, during some renovations, workers noticed the termite infestation, said Trebatoski, who was hired nearly a year ago to head the department.

In the past, buildings were treated one at a time, he said. Now, exterminators are suggesting a tenting of the whole facility to guarantee the structural integrity of these buildings.

Trebatoski had time to make detailed evacuation plans.

We looked at the historical data, he said, when is the intake the lowest, when is the shelter population lowest and we determined that the time immediately following Christmas and New Years is one of the lowest impact weeks.

The tenting offers a unique opportunity to hold an animal emergency evacuation drill, he said, to get ready should a hurricane or other disaster strike and animals have to be relocated.

We contacted the University of Florida and some emergency responder people and put together an emergency evacuation plan that is not a whole lot different from if a hurricane hit, except we have all this prep time, he said. We are bringing in nine vehicles used in post-Katrina animal relocations and in some big fires out West, and were setting them up as temporary shelters.

The mobile shelters will be moved in around Christmas and the animals will move into their temporary digs by Jan. 5, when the termite extermination begins.

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Pest control to pause animal intake at county shelter