{"id":89042,"date":"2026-01-17T00:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89042\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T00:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:58:10","slug":"berks-municipalities-contract-with-arl-for-animal-control-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89042\/","title":{"rendered":"Berks municipalities contract with ARL for animal control in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Animal Rescue League of Berks County<\/a> has signed full-service animal control contracts for 2026 with Reading, Upper Bern Township and Wyomissing.<\/p>\n

The full-service contracts range from $2.50 to $4.20 per person based on the municipality\u2019s population, according to Alyssa Budock, media and communications manager for the ARL.<\/p>\n

According to a statement, the covered services include intake and holding of stray domestic animals showing signs of ownership at no cost to residents, regardless of behavior or medical condition, as capacity allows.<\/p>\n

Residents of the municipalities involved have direct access to the ARL during business hours for animal control, humane law and noncruelty concerns. The ARL provides animal control enforcement and dispatch services, including stray animal pickup when no other transportation is available and response to injured, deceased or potentially rabid animals in accordance with Pennsylvania law.<\/p>\n

The Cumru Township shelter\u2019s business hours are Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday closed; Wednesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased with the services provided by the ARL and value the partnership we have with their team,\u201d Reading Managing Director Jack Gombach said in an emailed statement from the city. \u201cOver the past year, they supported the city in responding to more than 200 animal control calls, completing nearly 900 investigations and caring for over 1,600 animals. That work matters to public safety, to neighborhood quality of life and to the humane treatment of animals.\u201c<\/p>\n

There was no increase this year in cost to the city, the email said.<\/p>\n

Upper Bern Township and Wyomissing did not respond to requests for comment on their respective contracts.<\/p>\n

There are eight municipalities that have fee-for-service agreements: Amity, Bern, Caernarvon, Colebrookdale and Union townships, and Bechtelsville, Boyertown and West Reading. The option is offered to small municipalities that need assistance with fewer than 15 dogs per year.<\/p>\n

The fee-for-service agreements are $200 per dog plus optional transport fees based on the distance from the shelter, Budock said.<\/p>\n

To address needs involving community cats, municipalities can enter into a voucher program for trap-neuter-vaccinate-return services separate from an animal control contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur animal control services are rooted in a deep commitment to the animals and communities we serve, guided by evidence-based practices and established industry standards,\u201d said Ashley Mikulsky, ARL CEO, in the statement. \u201cProviding meaningful, reliable coverage isn\u2019t something we do alone \u2014 it requires partnership between the ARL, law enforcement and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separate from animal control contracts, the ARL provides humane law enforcement to the entire county.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Animal Rescue League of Berks County has signed full-service animal control contracts for 2026 with Reading, Upper…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,3138,128,130,129,289,706],"class_list":["post-89042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pets-and-animals","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}