Rescue Ink to operate Long Beach animal shelter

City officials recently approved a contract with Rescue Ink — a Queens-based animal rescue organization best known for its reality series on the National Geographic Channel — to run the Long Beach Animal Shelter, which shut its doors in 2007.

At its June 21 meeting, the City Council approved a $15,000, one-year contract with Rescue Ink to launch a pilot program aimed at reopening the local shelter, at 770 Park Place, to treat lost, stray or abused animals found by the city’s animal control officers and resident volunteers.

After the city’s contract with the Freeport Animal Shelter was discontinued four months ago, City Manager Charles Theofan said that the city is required by law to offer animal shelter services, whether through another municipality or organization. Theofan said that the city needed to find an alternative to its $47,000 annual contract with the Freeport shelter once that facility was purchased by the not-for-profit animal rescue organization Bobbi and the Strays, which said it could no longer accept Long Beach dogs due to the overcrowding of housed animals.

Theofan said that under the new agreement with Rescue Ink, providing its shelter services in the city would reduce the city’s costs. The $15,000 contract is earmarked for animal care provided by Rescue Ink, who plans to pay for the facility’s utility costs. The city has also allocated $25,000 to renovate the shelter and Theofan said he expected the overhaul of the facility to be completed this month.

“We’re giving [Rescue Ink] a facility to operate that’s been lying barren and has not been used for all these years,” said Theofan. “It’s going to be put to very good use, a use that is going to protect the lives of innocent animals. I think this is truly what we call a win-win.”

The members of Rescue Ink — a tough, tattooed bunch who were featured on the series “Rescue Ink: Unleashed” and released a self-titled book in 2009 — have gained notoriety in recent years. Founded six years ago, the group has recruited police officers, military personnel and private investigators to investigate cases of animal abuse, mainly in the New York area.