White County Commissioner Roger Mason told Steering Committee B Monday night the county needs to make some decisions about their work with animals.
The committee reviewed information about Animal Shelter policies. They also discussed the feasibility of hiring an animal control officer and shifting shelter operations to a non-profit.
“And really what it boils down to, it boils down to whether or not were operating as animal control or we are operating as a county tax payer funded shelter,” Mason said. “And i’m not saying one ways right or one ways wrong but that’s the decision that’s gonna have to be made.”
Mason said a high number of calls to the Sheriff’s Department involve animal complaints. Mason said if the county chooses Animal Control, the position would be funded under the Sheriff’s Office and all shelter operations would fall under private nonprofit organizations. Mason said if this happens, discussions with nonprofit organizations in the surrounding areas are next to determine if they want to build a shelter.
“Your spay, neuter, shelter, adopting, that’s one function and then the animal control is where you’re getting calls for bites and strays and those other things,” Mason said. “And I think part of our problem with where were at is were trying to combine both of those things.”
Mason said nonprofits do a better job than the government agency. Mason said if the focus is only on removing dogs from the street, that does not align with what Animal Control prioritizes, rescue. Mason also said with this approach, there are challenges that make the situation more complicated.
“There’s more than one non profit operating in the county that deals with animal rescue,” Mason said. “And so how do you pick, there’s at least three organization that are 501c3 in the county.”
After discussions, Mason said none of the three nonprofits in White County, from his knowledge, want to build and manage a shelter, as they are all volunteer-based.
Committee member Jordan Cocke said he is in favor of the Animal Control Officer for a couple reasons. He said the first is to alleviate the workload on the Sheriffs department as they are taking over the task of Animal Control at the current moment. Cocke also said helping non-profits benefits the community.
“I think we need to go towards Animal Control for white county and speak to sheriff page and see what he will work with us on,” Cocke said. “But I think we need to go towards animal control and help out nonprofits, if we can, help them out with yearly donations.”
The post White County Tackles Shelter Challenges appeared first on News Talk 94.1/AM 1600.