August 17, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
Members and supporters of the DeKalb Animal Coalition will be observing with great anticipation tonight (Tuesday) as the county commission considers passage of the 2021-22 fiscal year budget which includes more county funding for the animal shelter.
The budget committee has recommended that the county up its annual contribution to the animal coalition from $3,000 to a total of $39,805 to help fund the hiring of another employee. That would bring to three the total number of staff positions at shelter
Two year shelter employee Emmaly Bennett, who was just named Director by the Coalition, recently came before the budget committee to make the case for extra funding. Statistics provided by Bennett showed that from November 6, 2017 when it opened until July 1, 2021, the shelter had taken in overall 1,410 animals including 488 from the City of Smithville (34.60%) and 922 (65.39%) from DeKalb County. Bennett said that while almost two thirds of the animals coming into the shelter are from outside the City of Smithville but inside DeKalb County, the City of Smithville is doing far more to help support the shelter than the county. Just last week, the Smithville Mayor and Aldermen approved an amended lease and contract with the coalition to contribute $100,000 in the first full year of the new deal with a $1,000 per year increase over the next fifteen years. The funding amount was one of several changes made by agreement between the city and coalition in the amended contract from the original approved in December, 2015.
In August 2015, the county commission made its own deal with the coalition before the shelter was built. At that time former county commissioner Jack Barton made the following motion which was adopted by the commission and is still in effect. “This is a one time donation of $75,000 by DeKalb County earmarked for the construction of an animal shelter by the DeKalb Animal Coalition. This donation is conditional. The county will not be responsible for the hiring and payroll of any employees relating to the animal shelter and will not be responsible for the operation of the shelter or the future funds needed to operate the shelter. Also the Coalition will pick up animals for the county when a request is made from the county mayor’s office or the sheriff’s department at a fee of $100 and $50 for a dead head if they fail to pick up an animal. That will be paid by the county to the coalition for those animals that are requested by the county mayor’s office or the sheriff’s department,” said Barton.
Today the county pays $110 per aggressive animal picked up by the coalition upon request of the county mayor or sheriff which has come to only $1,100 over the last year.
During recent meetings, Fifth district county commissioner Jerry Adcock has argued that the county needs to stick to the deal it made with the coalition in 2015 and not contribute any more taxpayer money to the shelter. And if its true that 65% or more of the animals taken in are owner surrenders and strays coming from outside the city but within the county, Adcock said the people bringing them in should be charged a fee by the shelter for their upkeep.
Bennett said that would only discourage people and not solve the problem.
According to Bennett, the shelter needs extra funding from the county to better staff and care for all the animals, dogs and cats.
“ We bring them in and vet them. We rehabilitate them. We send them to rescues. We adopt them out. Its all the same process whether the animals come from the city or county and we need help and funding to do that,” said Bennett.
As for animal control, “We receive phone calls daily from those who need our assistance and as of right now its just really hard for us to get to them,” Bennett continued. “With another employee that would help with responding to animal control calls in the county and city as well. Two people have to respond to an animal control at all times for safety reasons and we must be accompanied by a law enforcement officer because we are not animal control officers,” she said.
Another concern by Adcock and other county commissioners is that a salary of almost $40,000 to a shelter employee (funded as a contribution by the county to the coalition) would be more than what some county employees earn.
Bennett admits that while the goal is to add another employee to the staff, the coalition would decide how to spend any extra money it gets from the county.
“That request of $39,805 was a model of my exact salary that we pulled from the city to get to $15 per hour (for an employee) but the coalition would be in charge of the hiring and what the pay rate would be. It might start at $12 per hour and some of the money might be used to offset vaccinations, flea and tick prevention, spay and neutering. It would be used as needed because we have to pay for all those things,” said Bennett.
Even with extra help and funding the shelter is limited in how many animals it can house at a given time and when it reaches capacity there has to be a waiting period before accepting more. “We have 20 dog kennels and once we are full we can’t take anymore. We do keep two kennels open at all times for aggressive animals that we might have to pickup,” said Bennett.
When the shelter reaches capacity, it often makes available pet food and other supplies to help people on the waiting list care for the strays until there is room for them.
The animal coalition makes every effort to find stray dogs and cats a home but sometimes help is needed. That’s when the shelter calls upon animal rescues.
“We partner with a variety of local, out of state, and breed specific animal rescues in order to provide more and sometimes better opportunities for the companion animals in our care to find their homes,” said Bennett.
“Some rescues have adopters already committed to taking our dogs and cats prior to them ever leaving our shelter. Some go straight to a foster that provides a loving, nurturing home environment while pets wait for their adopter. Others are transported out of state to a foster or adoption facility. All the rescues we work with are no kill and choose which animals they are able to help and that is particularly vital when we have animals that need special care, socialization, or are not adjusting to shelter life very well,” she continued.
“We are thankful to have the contacts and opportunities to work with rescues. It allows us at the DeKalb Animal Shelter to maintain our low kill policy while still serving our community to the best of our ability. We only have so many kennels so the more adoptions and rescues we facilitate the more availability we have to take in pets in need within our community,” said Bennett.
The county commission will meet in special session tonight (Tuesday, August 17) at 6:30 p.m. for the sole purpose of considering passage of the 2021-22 county budget. A public hearing will be held prior to the meeting at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the Mike Foster Multi-Purpose Center.