Humane Society may close without county financial assistance
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Board members with the Humane Society of the Ohio Valley said if there wasn't any increase in financial support from the county, they would have to close the doors by the end of the year.
"If we can't operate anymore as a humane society then the county has to take over as a dog pound," said Humane Society Vice President Esther Salem. "That's where we're at, at this point."
The board went to the Washington County Commissioners on Thursday to discuss options regarding financial support from the county and sheriff's office.
Salem said not only is the shelter out of space, it doesn’t have enough finances to support all of the animals in the shelter and the staff.
Salem said they receive about $7 per dog from the county and with current valuations and the cost of care, that number would need to be around $25-28.
"We also have no control over how long (evidence dogs) stay in the shelter, we can't control what happens in the court systems," said Salem.
The sheriff's office pays for the first three days on an evidence dog or dog collected by the dog warden is at the humane society. Salem said the problem is those dogs often stay for much longer than three days and they are tasked with the care and financial burden.
"The dog warden explained to us that he's concerned about those dogs going back to the owner, that at least the female dogs be spayed," she said.
Washington County Sheriff Mark Warden said the humane society receives about $60,000 for evidence dogs. When he asked the board how much it costs on average to house all dogs at the shelter, Salem said it depends and it changes all the time.
"We tried to come up with those numbers but things change constantly," said Salem. "The bottom line is, if we can't get more support there's going to come a meeting where we're gonna walk in ... and we're just gonna hand you the keys to the building."
Warden said the first step would be to calculate exactly how much is needed to house and care for the animals at the shelter. He said find the daily average since the numbers fluctuate and go from there.
"In my opinion, we need to move forward with a proposal from the HSOV," said Commissioner Charlie Schilling. "We've got to see a proposal before we can approve anything."
Commissioner Greg Nohe said they should calculate how much was needed for food, vet bills, utilities and more.
Salem said there hasn't been a contract between the HSOV and the commissioners since it was canceled in 2019. In 2019, the contracted amount was $7 a day for each dog and that number hasn't changed since.
"Let's look at a number ... from the perspective of utilizing taxpayer dollars, we need to be more specific," said Schilling. "They're going to want to know where their money's going and we need to be more specific."
Schilling said they were happy to support services but they needed to see exact and current numbers before taking any steps.
The board said they had presented their numbers during past meetings, although those numbers have changed since then.
The board also wanted to look into implementing stricter fines and spay and neuter laws that would eventually alleviate the amount of strays in the county.
Athens County had a spay and neuter law up until 2006 which required dogs or cats over the age of six months to be fixed before being given or sold away. Violators were required to pay $100 in fines.
Enforcing a spay and neuter law could potentially reduce the population of stray animals, according to the HSOV.
The commissioners said they would review those options with the Washington County prosecutor's office.
There will be a meeting between the commissioners and the Humane Society board within the next 30 days to review finances and potential proposals. From there, actions are hoped to be taken to determine the future of the Humane Society.
Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com