“Animal shelter to tack on fees for accepting pets from county residents - Picayune Item” |
| Animal shelter to tack on fees for accepting pets from county residents - Picayune Item Posted: 28 Sep 2010 06:49 AM PDT POPLARVILLE — SPCA officials, who run the Picayune animal shelter, told supervisors on Monday that they will charge county residents fees for using the facility in the wake of an $11,000 funding cut by supervisors to the animal shelter in the county's new budget for 2010-11. That did not go down well with supervisors. Animal shelter director Judy Wheaton said that beginning Oct. 1, the shelter, which is located on Picayune's Palestine Road, will charge citizens residing in the county, outside the Picayune city limits, $10 for each animal brought to the shelter and $15 for each litter. That would include animals brought to the shelter by sheriff's deputies and the county's animal control officer. Supervisor and board president Anthony Hales said he did not like the new policy set forth by the three SPCA officials, Wheaton, president Maria Diamond and secretary-treasurer Bettie Cashion. "So where is the legal authorization for us to fund you anyway," said Hales. "Am I right?" Replied Wheaton, "And there is no legal authorization for us to take in animals from the county." Wheaton also maintained that the county funding was not a donation, like to a charity, but was a payment for a service. It was tit for tat. Diamond told supervisors that the organization learned about the cut from "reading the newspaper" and that the $11,000 cut was a 21.5 percent overall cut in shelter funding. The county funding this year was $51,000 and was cut to $40,000 for the new county budget that takes effect on Oct. 1. Picayune also donates to the shelter, which is run by the SPCA, as, right now, sort of a countywide animal shelter accepting strays and abandoned dogs and cats from throughout the county. The shelter euthanizes about three-quarters of the animals it receives and finds homes for the remaining 25 percent, officials told supervisors. Officials said it takes about $35 per animal to process and euthanize or find a home for an animal. Officials said the shelter is currently taking in approximately 3,000 animals at no-charge from the county. Diamond said that the shelter will continue to accept animals from county officials, but will expect payment in cash from county officials when the "animal is turned over to us." "Wait a minute," said Hales. "You will still accept dogs and cats from our deputies and from the animal control officer, but you expect us to pay a special fee per animal, on top of funding?" Replied Diamond, "Yes, Sir." Added Diamond, "We know this will cause a lot more dogs and cats to be dropped off on the side of roads because we will cease to be a no-charge facility, but we have no choice." Cashion then made a presentation, reading from a statement written by shelter supervisor Maria Beech, concerning an incident involving 12 dogs recently surrendered to the shelter by Rita Quatlander, and her parents' — Frank and Rose Brown — attempts to reclaim the dogs. Cashion said that the shelter got conflicting information from Quatlander and the Browns, that later supervisors got involved in the incident and the whole incident blew up. The incident wound up in Justice Court with the Browns suing the shelter, asking for $2,500 in damages. Beech wrote that County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin got involved in the matter and he implied that the group's funding could be affected if something was not done concerning Brown's request to reclaim the dogs. SPCA officials said that there was a dispute over who actually owned the dogs. Diamond, in a statement she read to the board, said that on Sept. 14, supervisor Hudson Holliday called the shelter concerning the matter of the Brown's request. Diamond said that the conversation deteriorated to the point that Holliday began "yelling" at me. She said she hung up on him when he began speaking loudly. There was some discussion among the supervisors and SPCA officials about what constitutes "yelling." The SPCA officials said that both Holliday and Lumpkin implied that the shelter county funding could be affected. Lumpkin did not reply, but Holliday did, and spoke pointedly. "I don't remember you hanging up on me," Holliday told Diamond, "and I don't dispute what you have said. But I want you to know why I did what I did. I was representing, Mr. Brown, who was a weak citizen, who had no recourse under the situation, and I will always speak up for the citizen who has no representation and no power. All I am asking is that you all down there use some common sense. There would have been no need for this to be in court if you all had used some good old common sense." Holliday also maintained that Lumpkin was lied to, that he was told that the shelter still had the dogs when actually four of them had already been enthanized and all but one, Jack, had been given away. Said Hales, trying to interject a little humor into the debate, said, "All I know is that I don't know Jack. This is the first time I have heard of him." SPCA officials said that when they communicated with county officials they were not aware of that some of the dogs had been destroyed. They said they were destroyed because they were violent and dangerous and tried to bite and attack the handlers. Hales said that right now the board will take no action on the matter but will discuss further its obligations to the shelter. The board then moved on to other matters. The board went into an executive session, and then adjourned to its Monday, Oct. 4 meeting, at 9 a.m. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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