The Columbia-Marion County Animal Shelter moved out its dogs this week as part of reorganization by new Police Chief Michael Kelly.
Kelly says the changes will be better for personnel and the animals, but they have many worried about the shelter’s future.
“We’re concerned that they’re shutting it down,” volunteer Burt Barosse said Monday as he cleaned kennels at the Airport Road facility. “We’ve had to find homes for the animals. We’re concerned that rescues won’t stand a chance.”
But Kelly said the dogs were transferred so the shelter could eliminate a rodent problem, among other reasons, and that departing Director Amanda Bennett will be replaced with two part-time employees: a certified police officer who can now issue citations when he sees things like mistreated animals and someone at the shelter taking care of the animals.
Kelly said he issued a letter early Saturday addressing the facility after he started getting Facebook messages, calls and texts around 4:30 a.m.
“The shelter is not closing at all,” he said. “We’re making the shelter something that Columbia can be very proud of. Things got started on social media, and that’s why I thought I needed to put out that letter on Saturday. I just wanted folks to know that we’re making things better. There’s going to be a chain of command.”
Bennett, who has been the animal control officer and shelter director, is leaving to work full-time as a dispatcher in Lamar County.
“We’re going to miss her. But we’re going to be hiring someone to take her place,” Kelly said. “It will be a little change in philosophy because this person will be a certified police officer. This is so we can actually have an animal enforcement officer so we can go in and enforce the animal ordinances, issue citations and what have you.”
Then Brittney Yates, who has been at the shelter part-time assisting Bennett, will take care of the facility.
Kelly said the animals were being moved for the shelter for several reasons.
“There were some animals that had been there for quite some time,” he said. “I’ve never run an animal shelter; I’m a cop. But when I think of shelter, I think of a temporary place of safety. I wouldn’t want my family to go into a tornado shelter and have to live there for three years. I want to make the facility a temporary place for an animal to have safety until we can find them a new home.”
He said they’re going to “aggressively find these animals new homes” and are considering partnering with a place like Southern Pines in Hattiesburg or another animal rescue center. Exact plans remain undecided, he said.
Kelly said removing all of the animals was for their safety as officials and volunteers make changes to the facility.
“No. 1, we have a rodent problem at the shelter,” he said. “I don’t want the public coming into the shelter – it looks bad for the city to come to shelter to adopt a dog and there’s a rat running across the countertop or hiding out in the corner and there are insects there. We needed all of the dogs gone so we can go in there with exterminators and we can bomb it. We’ve got to clean it up and paint and spruce it up and throw out old stuff that needed to be thrown out. We couldn’t really do that effectively with a bunch of animals there.”
Volunteers like Barrosse have been busy helping to find the dogs homes, and he was worried about their safety.
“We were concerned that if people have nowhere to place a stray dog, they might just shoot him,” he said. “I’ve rescued dogs for years. I found one recently and was told that they couldn’t take it because they didn’t have room. We’ve got to be better than this.”
Barrosse agreed that conditions were not as good as they needed to be.
“I’ve had to remove deceased rats from some of the dogs’ water dishes,” he said. “The place is overwhelmed. It takes a while to clean and scoop up poop. We really have a good group of volunteers, but we need more. If they are thinking about closing it, I’m hoping there is a way to save part of it. I hope we can keep the dogs for a couple of weeks and then send them to Jackson or Hattiesburg. We could help some of them. It wouldn’t seem right to kill them; it just doesn’t. We have the resources to save them.”
Kelly said the Police Department’s efforts to adopt the animals will include special adoption days, such as having tents at Main Street events to promote adoptions.
He said they’ll lean on volunteers and workers from court-ordered programs.
“It’s just a new vision, and it’s going to be better. It’s going to take some time, but it’s really going to be better,” Kelly said.
Barrosse said he hopes to be able to continue to volunteer at the shelter. “They’re really sweet dogs,” he concluded. “They just don’t have anybody to love them.”
Pictured Above: Burt Barrosse, a volunteer at the Columbia-Marion County Animal Shelter, checks on dogs in one of the outside kennels Monday. Police Chief Michael Kelly said major changes were coming to the shelter to improve it. | Photo by Mark Rogers
