A long read on a complicated story.
On Wednesday, September 10, 2025, Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter began to fill with smoke, resulting in a complete evacuation of the building – both animals and humans. Immediately, it was determined that the smoke was coming from a contained but malfunctioning burn in the incinerator on site. YVAS resides at 1735 Monad Ave in a facility that has been rented from the City of Billings since 2009. The building is a 9,002-square-foot building, with a majority of the site being rented to YVAS and the remaining portion housing City of Billings Animal Control Operations. The COB portion houses an animal crematorium.
The crematorium is utilized to dispose of wild and domestic animals that are euthanized by Animal Control Officers, as well as domestic animals that have died by euthanasia or natural causes during their time at YVAS. YVAS is a no-kill shelter, which requires us to meet a save-rate of 90% or above. YVAS has proudly achieved a save-rate of 95% for years; however, there are and will always be animals that deserve a peaceful goodbye instead of a slow death. In these times, YVAS asks COB ACO to cremate these animal remains. Another scenario for animal remains includes individuals that qualify for YVAS low-cost medical care and access euthanasia for their owned animals. If these individuals cannot afford or do not want to have their ashes returned to them, the remains are disposed of in the crematorium by the COB. In the case of families that DO want their ashes returned to them, YVAS contracts cremation services from Faithful Friends in Laurel.
Late in 2023, YVAS experienced smoke entering the facility from the crematorium and promptly reported the issue to City administration. There were several continued incidents over the next year, and each time, YVAS escalated the complaints within the City of Billings. In 2024, the City of Billings attempted to repair the crematorium and create protocols to prevent smoke from entering the shelter. YVAS had not experienced issues since then until 9/10/25. Over the years during complaints filed to the City, YVAS staff had been told that the police department was using the incinerator to dispose of “evidence,” one time even mentioning that the evidence was at times “drugs.” However, no details were ever confirmed.
I can firmly and confidently say that, as the Executive Director, I did not know that they were disposing of extremely dangerous narcotics onsite. When the smoke started pouring out of one of our feline isolation rooms, I instructed staff to put on COVID masks and begin evacuating the animals. 13 staff members and I were exposed to the smoke for approximately an hour, and several began feeling ill. At this time, I instructed the team to go to the emergency room for treatment. Billings Clinic was phenomenal, and I cannot say enough about their prompt response and care for my team. Within minutes of arrival, we were triaged and placed on oxygen. It was while at the hospital that City Administration confirmed our greatest fear: evidence indeed meant drugs — and those specific drugs were Methamphetamine. My team and my animals had been confirmed to have been exposed to Meth.
The doctor at Billings Clinic recommended that each member of the team spend 3 hours in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for treatment to prevent short- and long-term effects of toxic smoke inhalation. Many photos of myself and staff have surfaced on the internet since treatment. One of my staff members addressed this more eloquently than I ever could: “We are seen smiling, making silly faces, etc., which make it look like we may have been fine/taking the situation lightly, but this is an incredibly serious situation. You quickly learn in this line of work that you have to keep spirits high in tough times, and if we all got down about every bad thing that happened, we wouldn’t make it through a single day. We often say, ‘if we don’t laugh, we’ll cry.”
Where do we go from here? To be frank, we are taking it hour-by-hour and day-by-day. We have utilized advice from the University of Wisconsin Shelter Medicine program to decontaminate and bathe all animals that were in the building and have begun sending any eligible animals into our gracious foster homes. The animals that experienced the most exposure to smoke are being retained at the YVAS Learning Center on 2010 Grand Ave under close supervision. We need to give an incredible shoutout to Trailhead Veterinary Services for taking all our medical patients and continuing to provide medical care as needed to shelter animals.
As for the building itself, Newman Restoration responded and was on-site Wednesday before any of the team were even discharged from the hospital. They began decontaminating the building and giving guidance to our Vet Med team on how to move and contain the rest of the animals. We are incredibly grateful for their continued help as we navigate this. Decontamination and restoration specialists have been onsite to test for drug contamination in 40+ spots within the shelter, and they estimate that we will not be able to “return home” to the shelter for 2 weeks to a month.
For many of us, this was the most heartbreaking news to receive 36 hours after the incident. We naively hoped to be back in operation by Monday, but in fact, we will not even have test results until Monday or Tuesday, and more remediation will need to be completed depending on the results. We are displaced, lost, and homeless. For many of us — staff, volunteers, and fosters — YVAS is our safe space. Our sanctuary to do what we do best: care for the animals in our community. Sending away more than 20 people needing services in the last 24 hours has completely gutted us. We WANT to help and in the same breath, we NEED help.
For now, we cannot access any of our supplies within the building. So, how can you help? We need donations more than ever right now – monetary and supplies.
Trailhead Veterinary Services is our drop-off site for donations, and their address is 1327 Central Ave. Trailhead is open from 8–6 Tuesday through Friday, but donations can be dropped at their facility in the alley and will be checked frequently by shelter staff.
Donations can be mailed to PO Box 20920, Billings, MT 59104, made online at www.yvas.org, or via Venmo at @yvas_mt.
Lost & Homeless Animals
If you find a lost or homeless animal:
- Inside Billings city limits → call Animal Control at (406) 657-8226.
- Outside city limits → we are working urgently to establish a temporary shelter. In the meantime, the Lockwood Fire Department is trained and equipped to scan for microchips.
The last and most meaningful shoutout goes to my team, our volunteers, fosters, and board of directors. It is a privilege to serve this community alongside each of you.
We are scared. We are heartbroken. But we also feel the love and support of our community, and for that we are deeply grateful. We will keep you updated daily as we navigate this crisis.
With gratitude and determination,
Triniti Halverson
Executive Director, Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter
Supply List
Priority:
- Dry dog and cat food
- Wet cat food
- Disposable rubber gloves
- Paper towels
Also needed:
- Blankets & towels
- Garbage bags
- Plastic spray bottles
- Puppy pads
- Dog toys & cat toys
- Dog/cat treats
- Animal dishes (all sizes)
- Kitten milk replacer
- Kitten bottles
- Small litter boxes
- Wire crates of all sizes (larger preferred)
