The nonprofit Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter in Billings, Montana, evacuated its animals offsite after smoke from burning narcotics in a crematorium leaked into its building.
The shelter rents its space from the city of Billings and shares the building with the city’s animal control operation, which houses a crematorium. After previous reports of smoke leaks, the city repaired the crematorium in 2024. There were no further leaks into Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter until Wednesday, the shelter said in a notice on its website.
Over the years, the shelter was told that the Billings Police Department also used the crematorium to dispose of evidence. On Wednesday, narcotics, specifically methamphetamine, were destroyed in the crematorium unbeknownst to shelter staff, Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter Executive Director Triniti Halverson said.
The FBI used the crematorium to destroy two pounds of meth, according to The Associated Press.
The Billings Police Department said in a release that it “follows a set schedule for narcotics destruction, in which the health department is notified as well as documentation of each disposal. The Billings Police Department and partner agencies have long used the incinerator for narcotics destruction.”
The smoke got into the shelter, police said, due to negative pressure. The shelter had lower air pressure and as a result the smoke flowed in.
Billings Assistant City Administrator Kevin Iffland told the AP Friday that a fan that was supposed to be used to blow the smoke away was “not readily available.”
The staff at the shelter masked up and got the animals onsite out of the building once smoke started leaking through a “feline isolation room.”
Ms. Halverson said that she and 13 other staffers were exposed to the methamphetamine smoke and that several got sick; they then went to a local hospital for treatment.
The most affected animals are being held at another Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter building and a local veterinary clinic is also helping to treat the shelter’s animals. The shelter’s main building will be closed for two weeks to a month while it is decontaminated.
Roughly 75 dogs and cats were relocated, Mr. Iffland and Ms. Halverson said, according to the AP.
