Striking a balance

By Mallory Panuska
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT Sat, May 17 2008

— Between picking up stray dogs to responding to domestic pet cruelty cases, animal control authorities are certainly kept busy in Marion County.
And with such a tough job to do, many times it seems there is no right way to handle these situations in the eyes of the public.
Not to be confused with the Marion County Humane Society, the area’s animal control facility is run by Lilabeth Crosby and is located on Fairmont’s east side. Crosby holds a joint contract through her business, Crosby’s K-9 Country Club, with the city and county to employ two humane officers to respond to calls across the county.
For the past three years, Crosby has been running the facility in addition to her separate dog grooming business located in front of the shelter, and was contracted for $81,400 a year between the city and the county after the humane society became a no-kill shelter.
When a call is received, Crosby said it is forwarded to one of her officers, who will investigate the situation. If it is a stray dog with no tag and no supervision roaming the streets, the officer will promptly go to the location, pick up the dog, and transport it back to the shelter.
Here, the animal is checked for a microchip or other identification, and if there is none, a description is written down and the dog is taken in. Once in the shelter, Crosby said she calls the newspaper and runs its description in the classifieds in an effort to find its owner, or try to adopt it out if it does not have a home.
Crosby said one of the main reasons many dogs turn up as strays is because they do not have valid rabies and tax tags. She said if pet owners would just tag their dogs, which is actually a requirement under state law, many of these problems could be prevented.
“Nobody puts tags on their dogs,” she said. “Several dogs could be saved if people just put them on and keep them updated.”
Crosby added that in the last year, she recalls maybe two of the nearly 1,400 dogs they picked up having tags, which she said is a very sad thing because without them, the shelter has no way of identifying the dogs.
Other cases Crosby said her officers respond to are animal cruelty claims. She said these range from animal abuse to abandonment to negligence, and that upon receiving a call, the officer is sent out to the location to investigate the situation.
And in response to various citizen complaints claiming that the officers have not responded to these complaints properly, Crosby said there is a lot more that has to go into these situations than people realize.
She explained that before the officers can lawfully take someone’s pet away, they have to fully investigate the situation and check if the animal has food, water and shelter. After that, the owner is notified of the complaint and given proper instructions to take care of the animal appropriately.
After this notification, Crosby said the owner is required to be given 24 to 48 hours to correct the situation, and it is only after that time has passed with nothing done that the officer can lawfully confiscate the animal.
Crosby added that the shelter cross reports with human services to help address many of these situations.
Crosby and Chris Gump, one of the humane officers for the shelter, both said that there have been several cases in the past in which the owners of neglected pets have been prosecuted. But for the most part, both said it is better to talk to the owners first and give them a chance to correct the problem.
“We try to give everybody a chance,” she Crosby. “If we take the dog, we will probably end up having to euthanize it. We want to help people out and tell people what they need to do so that doesn’t happen.”
Gump added that in a lot of cases, the owners just need to be educated.
“We make sure they are aware of the situation. Some people are not aware and we try to educate them and tell them to fix the problem,” she said. “Then we go back and make sure that they have taken care of the problem.”
Like most other counties, including both Monongalia and Harrison, Marion County’s animal control officers do not pick up cats in the community. Crosby said that while it is not actually prohibited, cats are technically considered free roaming, non-domesticted animals by the state, and are not required to be picked up.
And while Crosby said she would like to be able to help the community out by responding to cat complaints, she said the shelter just does not have the manpower to do it.
“We used to pick up cats, but it tied up too much of the officers’ time,” she said. “We helped a lot of people, but we have to be available to assist the police if there is an emergency.”
Crosby said that the shelter will, however, rent traps to people who would like to catch the cats on their own, and will accept the animals if the people bring them in. But because of space issues, all cats that the shelter accepts are automatically euthanized, which she said she tells the people before they bring them in, giving them the choice to try and re-home them if they desire.
“Everyone that brings a cat in, signs it over, provides identification and understands the cat will be euthanized,” she said. “We always tell them on the phone, we like to be up front. A lot of times people change their minds and find homes for them.”
Under state law, animal control is only required to keep all animals for five days before euthanizing them. But because Crosby and her officers want to try and save them, she said they typically keep the dogs for as long as it takes to find their owners or adopt them out.
But even with these efforts, Crosby said the facility is forced to euthanize about three quarters of all the animals taken in each month.
“We do not have as many claimed compared to what we pick up,” she said. “And we adopt out, but we do not have a big adoption (rate).”
On average, Crosby said the shelter accepts around 100 animals a month, between both dogs and cats. And she said that while the shelter workers do everything they can to adopt out the animals and fine their homes, that sometimes they just have no choice but to euthanize them.
“Somebody has to keep the balance in check. We can’t have situations where animals aren’t vaccinated, getting bit by coons and spreading rabies. It’s a health hazard,” she said. “We have to keep the community safe. We have all these animals and somebody has to do it. Everybody does the best they can.”
E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com.

‘No-kill’ humane society faces funding issue
By Mallory Panuska
Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — After practicing euthanization as a means of trying to solve the county’s homeless animal problem for years, the Marion County Humane Society decided in 2003 that they just could not take the lives of any more innocent animals.
And although board president Nancy Securro said the facility has been much better off and has saved many animals since locking up its gas chamber and becoming a “no-kill” shelter in 2004, it was unfortunately also left with a significant funding issue.
When operating as the county’s animal control authority and practicing euthanization, the facility was contracted jointly by the city and the county and given monetary compensation to complete its duties. But when the humane society stopped euthanizing, it could not respond to as many calls because it did not have room for the animals, and city and county officials went elsewhere for an animal control authority.
Now, the humane society, located in White Rock, serves solely as a shelter that houses animals until they can be adopted. The workers at the facility do not physically go out and pick up animals anymore, but are always accepting them from people who bring them in.
Securro said all the animals that reside at the facility have been brought in, rescued and checked for any health issues. Once at the shelter, the animals, which are usually just dogs, cats, puppies and kittens, are given shots, and in many cases, spayed or neutered.
Under state law, any animal adopted from a humane society or animal control shelter has to be spayed or neutered, which Securro and animal control officials alike believe is an excellent requirement.
Securro added that in order to really solve the homeless animal problem, which is obviously a significant issue when considering how full both the humane society and animal control shelters are, is tightening the law to require all pet owners to spay or neuter their animals.
“There is only one answer to animal control, and that is mandatory spaying and neutering.” said Securro. “If we can somehow get it so we have mandatory spaying and neutering we wouldn’t have to kill animals because of some irresponsible owner who would not spay or neuter a cat or dog.”
Lori Campbell, humane society manager, said that the shelter even offers low-income spay-and-neuter vouchers, supplied through grant funds, to people who do not have enough money to spay or neuter their pet.
To adopt a humane society pet, customers come to the shelter, find the animal they like, and fill out an application. Then, a humane society employee does a home check to make sure the animal is going to a good residence, and if everything checks out, adopts the pet out to its new owner.
“We want to see it go into a loving home where it will be part of the family, not something in the back yard on a chain,” Securro said.
Currently, the humane society is the only facility in the county that houses cats because animal control just does not have the space to do it. And if funding issues cause the facility to shut down, which could be a possibility, employees have said that the county’s cat population will really be left with nowhere to go.
But in the past few weeks, the community has really stepped up and provided money and supplies to help the residents of the facility, which Campbell said may be enough to keep the facility open longer.
“I don’t know if we’ll be able to stay open but it looks pretty good,” she said. “We haven’t heard for sure.”
Last month, the facility was really struggling with funding issues, and officials were afraid that they may have to close their doors in September. But following some generous efforts from local citizens, things are starting to look up a little bit.
Securro said that anyone else who would like to donate to the facility can send donations by mail to: P.O. Box 905 Fairmont, WV 26554 or simply come to the board’s next meeting, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the J. Harper Meredith Building on Jackson Street.
E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com.

Officials praise county animal control
By Mallory Panuska
Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — Three years ago, a series of citizen complaints forced city and county officials to move local animal control duties to a new proprietor.
Today, Crosby’s K-9 Country Club, owned by Lilabeth Crosby, operates the local animal control facility, which is located behind her dog boarding business on Fairmont’s east side. However, besides both being owned by Crosby, the two facilities have no relation to one another.
Crosby’s business is contracted jointly by the county and the City of Fairmont and employs two humane officers who respond to calls across the county. This is Crosby’s third year as the county’s animal control authority, and both city and county officials said they have been satisfied with her performance thus far.
Before Crosby, for about 30 years, the Marion County Humane Society was the go-to source for handling stray animal issues within the county. And during that time, board president Nancy Securro said the officers picked up all types of animals.
But in 2003, when the humane society opted to become a “no-kill” shelter, city and county officials said complaints started flooding in from residents, claiming that the facility was not responding to calls.
“When the humane society went to a no-kill shelter it was always full of animals. They stopped going out into the community and picking up animals,” said Alan Parks, county commission president. “We were getting a lot of calls from people in the community who were concerned because (the humane society) wouldn’t come out and pick up stray animals. They were really breaking contract by not doing it.”
Parks said during this time, his office would receive 20 to 25 calls a day from upset citizens. City Manager Bruce McDaniel said that the city was also receiving an influx of complaints from concerned residents.
“Prior to the switch over, we were getting several calls a week from citizens complaining that their animal control needs hadn’t been handled,” said McDaniel. “But since the switch over, our office has maybe received half a dozen calls in three years. And most of those were just misunderstandings and a phone call usually took care of the situation.”
McDaniel said the city weighed their options when they realized the problem, and decided that the best decision would be to partner with the county and hire Crosby’s business to handle the duties.
Annually, McDaniel has said Crosby is given a total $81,400 between both the city and county to provide animal control services. Of this, he said the city supplies around $27,100. Monthly, this breaks down to around $2,260 from the city council and $4,500 from the county commission.
As animal control, Crosby said the officers respond to calls for everything from stray animals to pet cruelty. She said they will only go out and pick up dogs, but will accept cats if individuals trap them and bring them in. Generally, this is the same type of policy practiced by animal control officials in other counties, including Monongalia and Harrison.
Under state law, Crosby said the shelter is only required to keep the dogs they pick up for five days before euthanizing them. But she said that if there is enough room, they try to keep them for longer, typically three weeks to a month, to try and find the owners or adopt them out.
“One reason we save them so long is because some people come in days later and claim their dog,” she said.
Since the switch, the humane society has remained in operation as a “no kill” shelter. And Securro said that although they struggle with funding, they are much better off now that the animals are not being euthanized.
“We became a no-kill shelter because it isn’t right when you look at these beautiful dogs and cats and just because they were born, you take them out to the gas box and get rid of their lives,” she said. “ (Stray animals) could possibly be re-homed and find a new life. The humane society shouldn’t kill anything. We are much, much happier the way we are.”
E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com.

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