By Angela Hatton
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-894160.mp3
Madisonville, KY – Almost a year ago, the Hopkins County Humane Society came under public criticism, in part due to poor conditions at their shelter and a high euthanasia rate. The county reportedly euthanized 78 percent of the animals they took in. According to the most recent data from the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy the average is 64 percent per shelter. Last fall, the county's Humane Society board instituted a series of internal reforms. They revised their bylaws and elected new officers. Now, the board has set a goal of zero euthanizations of adoptable animals by 2016. Angela Hatton has more on the challenges ahead for the society.
Jan Humphrey is a retired St. Louis elementary school principal and the Hopkins County Humane Society board secretary. Humphrey says she became aware of the problems at the shelter when she moved down to the area last July. As a life-long animal lover, she wanted to help, so she got involved and became a member of the board. Humphrey was part of the committee that revised the outdated bylaws. She says one goal was to allow more member input.
"And up until then, to get on the board you basically were appointed. That kind of makes it sort of an incestuous kind of situation where you have the same people appointing over and over again."
Humphrey says the board wanted to bring in new leadership with some fresh ideas. Chris Thorowgood is the recently elected board president. She also runs the no-kill shelter Jack's Place in White Plains. Thorowgood says it's necessary to have an animal shelter in the county.
"We've domesticated these animals to the point they can't take care of themselves. If you dump a puppy on the side of the road, most likely it's going to starve to death, it's going to get hit by a car, or it's going to be killed by a coyote. So we need to have some place for people to take their animals when they can no longer care for them."
The shelter contracts with the county and the city of Madisonville to perform animal control, so Thorowgood says they aren't allowed to turn animals away, like private shelters can. The county shelter takes in around thirty-five hundred animals per year.
"During kitten season, which normally runs from April to November, which is when cats are fertile and having their litters, we can get thirty to forty kittens a day coming into the Humane Society. We just don't have thirty or forty people coming in a day looking for a cat to adopt."
Thorowgood says in order to reduce the county's euthanasia rate, local people need to start spaying and neutering their pets.
"We've just initiated recently a low-cost and low-income spay/neuter program that we hope will really impact the number of animals that come into the shelter. If we can get as many animals in Hopkins County spayed and neutered as possible."
Thorowgood says streamlining the adoption process and increasing shelter capacity will also bring the death rate down. The current shelter can hold around 100 animals, but a new location is in the works, which would hold as many as four times that amount. The county fiscal court is footing the bill to get construction started. Officials estimate total cost at four hundred thousand dollars. Magistrate Tim Riggs represents the county on the Humane Society board.
"So what we're doing now is looking at existing shelters throughout the country, trying to find one that is already in existence that we can just, uh, save a lot of time in our design, and to save on our construction costs we're going to be using a lot of our inmate labor to do that with."
Officials expect the new location, which will be near the county jail, completed within a year. Riggs says the fiscal court also will likely increase the shelter's funding allocation in the next budget cycle.
"The exact percentage or amount I'm just not sure of at this time. My thoughts initial thoughts are in the 20,000 dollar increase which is roughly a 25 percent increase in funding the county's given."
Madisonville Mayor Will Cox says the city hasn't begun discussing their budget allocations for next year. He says the Humane Society will make their budget request next week. Board members say the attention generated around the Humane Society is having a positive effect. Secretary Jan Humphrey says that's manifested in a huge spike in membership following the bylaw changes.
"Last I checked, it is around 180 members and I think up until then as far as I could tell as secretary I only knew of about four that were actually signed up as members."
Most recently, the board asked their shelter manager to resign, following dissatisfaction with her management style, including the euthanization of 38 dogs the board says was uncalled for. President Chris Thorowgood says the board is moving forward quickly though. They are revisiting their candidate pool, and board members hope to announce a new manager Monday.