Pittsylvania County eyes animal transfer ordinance

CHATHAM — Pittsylvania County hopes to create an ordinance for transferring dogs from its animal shelter in Dry Fork to licensed adopting agencies within Virginia.

The county currently has no ordinance regulating animal transfers from the Pittsylvania County Animal Control facility, said County Administrator Dan Sleeper. The Board of Supervisors’ Animal Shelter Committee met with members of the Animal Welfare League of Pittsylvania County in Chatham on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

Assistant County Administrator Otis Hawker recommended to the committee that the county transfer only to Virginia-licensed agencies inspected by the state veterinarian. Also, the county should keep track of transferred animals by obtaining reports from the agencies the dogs were taken to, Hawker said.

“I think this would be a good procedure and policy for us to follow,” Committee Chairman Coy Harville said.

Hawker also recommended that the shelter’s animal-control officer has the final say on which dogs can be transferred from the facility. In addition, the Board of Supervisors should decide which agencies the county will send dogs to, he said.

Harville said the county should also make sure transferred dogs are adoptable and that it doesn’t send them away just to get rid of them. The league will be able to provide input on the ordinance or changes to it, Harville said.

As for transferring dogs to agencies out of the commonwealth, an attempt to do so would “create issues” and the county may not have enough staff to deal with other states, Hawker said.

Animal Welfare League members and the committee will gather and examine animal-transfer ordinances from agencies and other jurisdictions before formulating a draft ordinance for Pittsylvania County. The Board of Supervisors must approve an ordinance before it goes into effect.

The league’s and county’s meetings are part of an effort to improve conditions at the county’s animal-control facility and reduce the shelter’s dog-kill rate. After working with the league, the Pittsylvania County facility began opening on Saturdays on a six-month trial basis in July. Chief Animal Control Officer Pete Boswell said during the meeting that 35 dogs have been adopted from the facility since July, including 14 that were adopted on Saturdays.