Animal shelter to reopen its doors
Following a series of impassioned and heartfelt comments from Humane Society president Andy Anderson, the Warren County Commission voted unanimously in front of a packed crowd of concerned citizens Monday night to provide the $80,000 the organization says it needs to fund the local animal shelter.
Commissioners also, for the first time, showed support for spay and neuter legislation.
As a result, Humane Society officials say the facility could reopen early next month, once notice of the county’s intention to provide the funds has been posted in the Southern Standard for at least two weeks as required by law.
“As soon as that runs and they can release the money, then we’ll open,” said Anderson. “We’ll have money to function.”
The resolution, which was eventually amended to increase the amount of funds from an original offering of $30,000 to $80,000, also established a committee to study animal control issues in Warren County.
Anderson addressed the offer of $30,000 in the resolution as interim funding to reopen the shelter. She pointed out how difficult it had been to place the animals left when the shelter closed, and noted the money would only last for a few months, by which time the facility would most likely be full once again.
“Then in a couple of months if we couldn’t agree, we probably could not get these animals placed,” Anderson said, “and then we would be killing over 100 animals needlessly.
We’re a Humane Society, and we just can’t do that. So I respectfully just have to decline the offer.”
Commissioner Gary Prater then addressed the commission.
“I think this county court needs to provide them with proper and adequate funding,” Prater said. “If we don’t fund them, we’re going to wind up getting in the animal business ourselves, and I certainly am not for that. We need to somehow tonight make an effort to give them the money needed for them to operate, and I don’t feel like $30,000, or $2,500 a month, is adequate funding.”
Commissioner David Grissom then made a motion to amend the amount to at least $50,000, which was questioned by Commissioner Roy Pierce.
“Why don’t we ask them how much money they’re going to need,” Pierce asked, “rather than just pulling figures out of the air. Ms. Anderson, what figure do you have in mind?”
“Last year, it cost $104,000 to keep that shelter open,” Anderson said. “We think that with $80,000 we can keep it open.”
Anderson said the Humane Society, which she noted was a small group, could handle raising the remaining $20,000 or so, but told the commission raising $80,000 presented an almost impossible task.
“You can’t raise $80,000 doing cake sales and garage sales and things like that,” she said. “We need help to do this.”
Anderson then went on to explain how nothing would really be accomplished until something was done to stem the tide of animal overpopulation.
“It can be stopped,” she said. “We need spay and neuter laws. We need to enforce them. And that doesn’t mean everyone has to go have their animals spayed and neutered. You have a choice. You can either spay and neuter your animal, or you pay a little more when you get your rabies shot, because you don’t want your animal spayed or neutered. That will bring revenue back to the county and will help support the shelter, and it will also bring down the number of stray dogs.”
Anderson’s comments were obviously effective with Commissioner Sally Brock standing to recommend funding the shelter as well. Grissom then stood and withdrew his amendment offering $50,000 and raised it to the $80,000 the Humane Society requested.
Both the amendment and subsequently the resolution itself then passed unanimously, much to the delight of attending Humane Society members.
Villa Mitchell, one of the most vocal proponents of the spay and neuter legislation, was most excited about the support shown for this aspect of the organization’s message.
“I think this is terrific,” Mitchell said. “The first county in Tennessee with spay and neuter ordinances. We’re going to show the rest of the state how to do this.”
But when it was suggested in a interview later that the Humane Society had won its case, Anderson disagreed.
“This wasn’t meant to be a battle,” she said. “It’s not about who won. We all won, the commissioners, the Humane Society, and most important, the people of Warren County. The commissioners listened and stepped up to the plate, took responsibility and did the right thing, and we thank them. We are going to work hand in hand with them to make things better. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”