KC Urban animal rescue given 15 days to vacate home, group says it will fight tickets to save pets

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - There’s a home on Tracey Avenue in Kansas City where kennels stack up outside and animals find refuge inside. Chain of Hope wants to continue its urban animal rescue in that house. However, Kansas City has other plans.

Vice President Kendra Albert explained, “We had the zoning inspector here Friday who gave us 15 days to vacate the property."

The notice to vacate took her by surprise especially because KC Animal Control had just visited the day prior.

She said, “We rent this property, we never have any more than four dogs like anyone else out there. They're saying it's because we don't have a full time resident in the house."

Because Chain of Hope is located in a residential neighborhood, it is subject to a number of strict restrictions. The animal rescue is only allowed to house four full grown animals at a time and as many puppies and kittens as they can care for

Kansas City Neighborhood and Community Services’ David Park wrote:

“ Chain of Hope is a good organization providing valuable services in Kansas City. There are code requirements to be met in order to operate an animal rescue kennel in a residential neighborhood. Chain of Hope was not able to obtain the consents of all neighbors within 150 feet of their location so a permit to operate the animal rescue kennel could not be issued. This will limit the number of dogs and cats and the extent of the business-type activities because they are located in a residential neighborhood.”

Albert said KC Animal Control wrongly ticketed their organization last week. According to Albert, two of the tickets were issued over puppies. The city believed the two puppies were over the age of four months, counting them as adult dogs. However, Albert told NBC Action News the puppies were in fact puppies, making the tickets unfair. The court date to dispute the tickets has been set for early February.

In the meantime, it plans to request an extension on the groups vacate date.

Albert said, “It just seems like we're being harassed by them, they don't go into regular citizen’s homes and count how many dogs they have."

Chain of Hope gathered signatures this spring for a special permit that would allow the rescue to house ten full grown animals at a time. All but one neighbor signed off on it. Others hardly notice the animals.

Neighbor Angela Carson explained, “We've heard dogs but not excessively so we didn't really know what was going on."

Albert admits that the group’s mission makes it hard to stay within city restrictions.

She explained, “It's very hard, especially when we get emergency calls because a dog is in desperate need of help and then we have no where to put it.”

She said Chain of Hope has a long list of foster homes for rescue animals, because four inside the shelter will usually not cut it.