Humane Society has funding – and excuses

Warren County has its own sheriff’s department. The county has an ambulance service. There is a highway department and a dozen convenience centers scattered around the county.

Yet when it comes to one operational animal shelter, the county is walking around with its tail between its legs. For close to a month, our local animal shelter has been chained to a tree, unable to open its doors due to a supposed lack of funding.

County officials no doubt thought those funding problems would disappear when they generously approved an $80,000 annual budget for the Humane Society, the organization which runs the animal shelter.

For those of you keeping track at home, that’s a $57,000 increase from last year’s funding.

It’s everything Humane Society officials were hoping for in their wildest dreams.
Or so we were told.

True to form, Humane Society members continue to haggle and sputter after finding problems with the county’s $80,000 appropriation. That’s because the county has a new policy for dealing with non-profit organizations. In order to keep better tabs on their spending, the county requires they buy supplies first, furnish receipts, and then be reimbursed. It’s a fairly simple process.

But the Humane Society allowed itself to become flat broke before demanding more money from the Warren County Commission.

Therefore, Humane Society officials say they have no money to buy supplies with in the first place. They want their funding given to them up front.

The end result is the Humane Society now says it can’t reopen the animal shelter. Is anyone really surprised by this latest development? It is after all the Humane Society where people argue first, take action later.

It’s shameful our county can’t find a way to keep the doors to the animal shelter open. More and more, it’s looking like the Humane Society needs to clean up its act.

It’s the Humane Society which wants so desperately to maintain control of the animal shelter. Yet it’s the Humane Society which let the shelter go flat broke before requesting assistance.

It’s the Humane Society which wants $80,000 worth of taxpayer funding. Yet it’s the Humane Society which doesn’t want interference from county officials on how to run the shelter.

Humane Society members who are worried about too much county input should wake up to this news flash. You have been granted $80,000 a year. That means when County Executive Kenneth Rogers says he wants to be more active in animal shelter decisions, the correct answer is, “Yes, sir.”

Somebody out there should tell the Humane Society about this interesting new invention called the credit card. Buying now and paying later is hardly a new philosophy.

Or maybe someone ought to introduce Humane Society members to the Magness Library board of directors. With a recent $1.2 million bequest, the library isn’t hurting for money.

But then again, neither is the Humane Society. It asked for, and was granted, $80,000. That means the time for excuses has passed. The days of not having enough funding to operate the shelter properly are over. Open the animal shelter or step aside and let someone else do it.