Valley River Blog
I'm writing this as a Volunteer at the Valley River Humane Shelter in response to a request to explain my posted comments in searching for rescues for
animals from the Shelter near Marble, North Carolina. These are my observations only and do not
reflect official policies or views of the board or any administrator and in
particular, my wife, who is one of the Shelter co-directors.
The
direction and operation of the Shelter changed directions in February when new
volunteer co-directors replaced the previous director. The new direction has produced a political
struggle between the "Old Guard" who originally founded the
organization to handle strays and the “Newcomers” (myself included) who have
moved it towards being a low-kill facility. The election of a new board on June
19th will determine if it continues in its present direction of using new
volunteers to find more fosters and increase local adoptions to prevent animals
being put down for lack of space. The "Old Guard" is led by many of
the ex-presidents of the Society. This is
a philosophical difference on the never-ending problem over how to handle large
numbers of strays but it has a major impact on the lives of the strays.
Major
changes occurred at the Shelter following the appointment of the volunteer
co-directors. They found the past record keeping did not show what had happened
to many of the animals and the Shelter and its
associated spay and neuter clinic were being operated in the red and would soon
be bankrupt. In addition, the septic
tank system was leaking into the lower parking lot, the telephone system and
computer systems rarely worked, and the security system did not work at all.
Through private donors these problems were fixed and the adjacent grounds were cleared of stumps, gravel was added to the parking lots, and outdoor
exercise yards were built so that all the 70 plus dogs normally present could spend
time outside (weather permitting). New workers were hired to enhance
the care of the dogs and a dog trainer was hired as the new kennel
manager. The training has helped make
the Shelter dogs more adoptable. New volunteers stepped up to the plate to help
with adoptions, transports, etc and the Shelter began to operate in the black
and essentially as a "no kill" or "low kill" through a
tripling of local adoptions, more fosters, more rescues, and the twice monthly
transport shuttle to an out-of-state, no-kill humane shelter (that was begun
under the previous director). I think the present kill rate is 10 to 15% for
all dogs (including puppies). I'm not sure what it is for cats but probably higher due to the feral cat problem. With these
improvements came an improvement in morale and everything seemed to be going
well.
However,
some of the ex-officers who have been responsible for overseeing the Shelter in
the past were not pleased with the new changes in the Shelter operation. The society president (who disagreed with the
co-directors) resigned. And rumors began
to spread through the community that the Shelter was putting down large numbers
of animals which was the exact opposite of what was going on. To counter these rumors, the co-directors
held informational public meetings.
Letters were sent to the newspaper (Cherokee Scout) from volunteers and
fosters, explaining what was happening in the Shelter and asking the public to
come see for themselves. The ex-society presidents responded in the
public meetings by disagreeing with the concept of moving towards a "no
kill" or "low kill" Shelter and in a counter letter to the
newspaper extolled the virtues of controlling the Stray problem by quickly
putting down animals that are difficult to adopt. (The letters should be available online from
the newspaper web site.) The stage has been set for a power struggle between
the two groups. Ex-presidents dominate
the nominating committee for the board, and I have yet to hear who has been nominated to serve
on the board.
The
politics are further complicated by the Animal Control issue. The Shelter has
operated Animal Control for four counties for years, picking up and/or
accepting about 3,000 dogs and cats a year and paying 2 to 3 animal control
officers along with maintaining two vehicles for that purpose. The volunteer
co-directors were informed by county officials that the last animal contract had expired years earlier and
the largest county (
The other
three counties do take responsibility for their strays and are in the process
of negotiating animal control contracts with the Shelter. Requesting a donation from the public and the use of a one week waiting list when space
is not available are controversal issues with the "ex-presidents" of the
Society. They believe that people bringing in strays should not be asked to help and excess animals should just be
quickly put down. The Shelter has
offered people bringing in stray dogs the option of walking through the kennel area and picking out a
dog to be put down so that the Shelter could intake their dog. To date, no one has taken the Shelter up on
that offer; however, to the best of our knowledge, none of these were ex-presidents.
So on
June 19th, we'll find out the future direction of the Valley River Humane
Shelter.
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