Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter Stops Accepting Billings Stray and Lost Animals

Billings Shifts Stray Animal Intake as Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter Ends 18-Year Partnership

Thousands of stray and lost animals found within Billings city limits no longer have a safety net at the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter. Effective immediately, the facility has stopped accepting strays from inside the city, bringing an 18-year municipal partnership to a sudden close. The decision follows formal notification from city officials that Billings is moving forward with a different provider for animal sheltering services.

The abrupt halt leaves residents in a holding pattern just weeks before the Billings City Council is scheduled to vote on a new animal shelter agreement on November 23, KTVQ reported. For nearly two decades, the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter served as the primary intake point for municipal animal control. That relationship fractured over the summer. In July, Billings Animal Control assumed control of the main shelter facility on Monad Road and terminated its formal contract with the shelter, though the organization continued providing intake services in hopes of reaching a new accord.

That hope came at a steep financial cost. Without a formal, funded contract, the shelter absorbed $120,000 in operational expenses over a four-month period. Facility leaders stated that continuing to absorb those costs without municipal compensation became entirely unsustainable.

Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter no more Billings animals announcement — Photo: montanarightnow.com

“We knew continuing to provide these services without compensation was financially unsustainable, but we also knew that our community had spent nearly two decades trusting us to care for their lost animals,” said YVAS Executive Director Triniti Halverson in a written statement. “We genuinely believed we could find a path forward with the City, and we did everything we reasonably could to avoid reaching this point. To say we are disappointed by this outcome would be an understatement.”

The operational strain compounds challenges the organization has faced over the past year. In September 2025, a severe malfunction occurred at the Monad Road facility while law enforcement was destroying seized methamphetamine. The incident sickened shelter employees and forced an emergency relocation of the animals, prompting YVAS to move its operations to a smaller facility on Jellison Road. While the organization continues running a separate capital campaign to fund a brand-new building, executive leadership emphasized that those earmarked construction funds legally cannot support day-to-day operations.

Even as the city-limit intake stops, the shelter continues handling animals through existing relationships with the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office and the Laurel Police Department. The organization also maintains its standard surrender, medical care, and safety net foster programs, handling roughly 6,000 total animals last year across all operations.

The Proposed Hand-Off to Kindred Hearts

With the longtime partnership ended, the city selected a new provider to take over municipal sheltering: Tina Gaspbar, founder of Kindred Hearts Animal Haven. Gaspbar currently operates her rescue out of her home in Shepherd, Montana, and anticipates moving her nonprofit’s operations into the city-owned animal control building on Monad Road if the City Council grants final approval later this month.

Gaspbar submitted a revised proposal after her initial bid exceeded the city’s budget constraints.

I really hope that we can actually work together instead of being some sort of a rival, Gaspbar said of the transition, emphasizing that the welfare of incoming animals remains the primary priority.