Animal control officers still sought
County officials are moving closer to either hiring full-time animal control officers or contracting out the job to individuals who would be on call and paid on a per-incident basis. A joint meeting of the Health and Welfare and Budget and Finance committees was held Tuesday afternoon to discuss the issue, examine the feasibility of the plan, and the potential cost to the county.
Though the method of funding the Humane Society Animal Shelter is still in question, commissioners seemed to be moving in the direction of setting up some sort of partnership with the animal welfare organization, relieving them of animal pickup duties and paying them per animal as is done with the city. However, this led to yet another disagreement between the Humane Society and the county when County Executive Kenneth Rogers tried to obtain paperwork from the facility.
“I called the animal shelter a couple of weeks ago,” said Rogers, “and tried to get some information for you on how many dogs were turned in or picked up, up through December.”
Rogers said he got a call back stating that shelter office manager Beth Farmer had been instructed not to turn over the paperwork. Farmer indicated in an interview last week she was aware of this issue and explained the decision to withhold the paperwork was due to privacy issues.
“We’ve always told people this information is just for our use,” Farmer said, “so we didn’t feel it was right to turn it over since it has names and addresses.”
Farmer said the organization would have no problem with turning over numbers though.
But as a result, Rogers said he went to Bedford County, which is close to the size of Warren County, for their statistics on animal pickup.
“For six months, they had picked up 800 animals,” Rogers said, “and they are approximately 900 less in population than we are.”
Bedford County’s budget was around $80,000, according to Rogers, which is the amount the county is currently providing to the local Humane Society shelter.
Rogers also checked with Franklin County, which had a population of 39,270 in 2000, the year for which Rogers got budget figures, which included the cost of maintaining a shelter.
“Their budget for a year for their own animal control, or rabies control officer, was $78,951,” Rogers said.
Rogers said there were continuing complaints from county residents that calls to the Humane Society have not been answered, though the Humane Society has said it tries to handle calls to the best of its ability.
“We owe it to the county,” Rogers said. “If we’re going to provide $80,000 for animal control, we need to provide that service, because it is their money.”
One idea suggested by commissioners was for the county to handle animal control calls while the Humane Society would handle adoption and spay and neutering programs. Whatever system is finally chosen, both the county executive and commissioners agree it is a hot-button issue for county residents.