County plans to build animal shelter
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With the Humane Society announcing it will no longer take county animals and County Executive Kenneth Rogers making it clear a county-run facility will function primarily as an animal control center geared to picking up strays — not as a place to drop off unwanted puppies and kittens — local pet owners with unplanned litters may find themselves handling their own adoption duties.
The county has announced it will move forward with plans to build its own animal control center and hire an animal control officer, but Rogers says it may take a couple of months for the facility to become operational.
The move came after Humane Society representatives turned down an offer to enter into a contract, similar to the one with the city, where the county would pay a per-animal fee for the organization to take county dogs and cats.
In a meeting specially called by Rogers to discuss the issue Monday night, Humane Society president Andy Anderson said, considering the number of animals the county generates, the shelter couldn’t afford to pay salaries and maintain the shelter at the rates the city currently pays, which is $35 per dog, or $7 per day for up to five days, and a flat fee of $7 per cat.
“When we discussed this with the city, we knew they had a much smaller number of dogs, somewhere around 40 or 50 a month,” Anderson said. “So we proposed they pay enough per dog to try to cover lights, water, telephone, the basics, that it takes to maintain the shelter.
“Being as it was such a small number of dogs, we felt that the employees could earn their salaries with grooming that we brought in there to the shelter. But if we take county dogs in, that’s adding somewhere around 150 animals, so the two employees can’t earn their salaries anymore. They won’t have time to groom and do other stuff to earn their own salaries.”
In addition to Anderson, the meeting was attended by Humane Society treasurer Riche Churchill and shelter director Beth Farmer, and a special committee formed by Rogers to look into county animal control issues made up of four county commissioners: Wayne Pryor, Bill Yancy, Carl Bouldin and Ken Martin.
Once Anderson made the Humane Society’s position clear, Rogers instructed the committee to start looking into choosing a location to build a county facility.
Anderson asked that county residents be informed the Humane Society shelter is essentially closed to county animals. Anderson said the Humane Society regrets the situation, but asks that no more animals be brought to the shelter from the county.
“We just can’t take them,” said Anderson. “They cut off our funding and we just can’t afford it.”
As it stands now, the Humane Society will continue to take McMinnville animals as part of its contract with the city, but will be closed to county animals indefinitely due to lack of county funding.
Meanwhile, Rogers says he realizes this presents a problem for those with unwanted animals, but hopes residents will bear with the county until officials can get the animal control center open.
But even when the new center opens, Rogers says the county won’t be a place to dump unwanted litters of puppies or cats.
“I don’t see that as being our function,” Rogers said. “We’re going to be there to pick up strays and do animal control.”
Rogers said the animal control center will be operated strictly according to state guidelines and the animal control officer will not only be state certified to euthanize animals, but will also be deputized so citations can be issued if a situation requires it.