Bixby, Humane Society of Tulsa form shelter agreement

BIXBY, Okla. — The city of Bixby has a new way of handling stray or surrendered animals. Once their agreement with the city of Coweta ends in October, the Humane Society of Tulsa takes over.

It's a story we've covered all year. For a while, the Horizon Animal Hospital acted as a makeshift shelter before running out of space. Then Coweta stepped in.

"While it went very well, it was presenting some housing issues for the city of Coweta," Bixby Police Chief Todd Blish said.

Now, their new arrangement with the Humane Society takes over as the city waits for their own animal shelter, part of the approved 2026 August bond.

Lawrence DePriest with the Humane Society says it's renewing an agreement they had with the city several years ago.

"Our facility will allow them to house them while they go through their legal home, legal stray process and try to get them reunited with their owner," DePriest said.

The partnership allows the Humane Society to pull dogs that aren't claimed and put them up for adoption.

"We rely on the city to handle those ordinances and those calls and take care of the at large animals that we're unable to, and then thankfully we're able to be there to support our cities," DePriest said.

A win for the Humane Society, and the city of Bixby.

"To me that that's an important part of community service and having a great relationship with the community is being able to take care of their fur babies as we should," Blish said. "And this agreement with the Humane Society will go a lot further towards doing that.

As for their future animal shelter, Chief Blish says that's still years away.