McMinnville deals with dog issue

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

While the city has its problems related to closing the animal shelter, some of the dogs county officials might have to contend with gather Tuesday at an abandoned shed located off Highway 8. (Amy Satterwhite photo)

McMinnville officials say they are not looking to get into the animal control business but will change the procedure for handling rampant animals located inside the city limits, given the Humane Society’s animal shelter closure.

Public Works assistant director Brad Hennessee said the Public Works Department’s animal control officer has no choice but to change the way stray or “at large” animal cases are handled as determined by city ordinance.

“With no shelter, we don’t have anywhere to house any animals. We don’t have any housing for enforcement of the ordinance,” Hennessee told members of the Streets and Sanitation Committee Tuesday.

Instead of taking stray or at large animals to the shelter, the animal control officer and other employees of the Public Works Department will aggressively try to return those types of animals located inside city limits to their owners.

“The only animals that we can pick up right now are dead animals or ones that are deemed by our department to be a threat to the people of the city,” Hennessee added.

Temporary provisions for confining four or five animals have been made through Public Works, Hennessee said, adding city officials have made contact with veterinarians who have agreed to euthanize vicious animals the city does collect.

“We have verbal agreements with more than one local vet, so we feel like we have an outlet for anything we might run into. We intend to pursue this policy until something with the shelter is resolved,” he added.

Public Works director Bill Brock said upon hearing the news of the shelter’s closure he believed the animal control officer would have to stop picking up all city animals except those considered vicious.

Hennessee clarified the city’s current position on animal control by stating McMinnville officials have long considered the city as a “customer” of the shelter and said the city has enjoyed a good working relationship with the Humane Society for years.

The city pays a five-day boarding fee for city animals housed at the shelter. During its last fiscal year, city officials paid almost $10,000 for boarding about 700 city animals due that arrangement, and those figures are considered fair by shelter officials.

The county donated about $22,000 to the Humane Society during its last fiscal year, but shelter employees took in approximately 4,000 animals from outside city limits, according to shelter manager Beth Farmer.

Hennessee apprised city officials Tuesday of the city’s new procedure after attending a Monday meeting that ended with county officials saying they would investigate establishing a county-owned shelter.

Rationale given at that time was that if county residents had to almost completely fund the Humane Society as a non-profit organization, county officials ought to operate a county shelter and have more accountability to the taxpayers.