CHATHAM — Members of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors aim to meet with a local animal-welfare group to discuss ways to improve conditions at the county’s animal shelter.
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During the board’s regular meeting Tuesday night, Westover Supervisor and Board Chairman Coy Harville told members of the Animal Welfare League of Pittsylvania County that county officials will meet with league members by the beginning of next month.
Members of the league asked the board during the meeting to take steps to reduce kill rates and increase adoptions at the county’s animal control facility in Dry Fork, among other improvements.
“It is time for a change in the county’s animal-control policies,” league member Bill Fox said to the board. About 100 supporters stood and applauded at the end of Fox’s speech.
The league requests that the board implement several changes at the facility. The requested changes include:
- Allow transfers to state-approved rescue organizations at no charge to the organization.
- Open the facility on Saturdays for at least two hours to increase chances of animal adoption and give pet owners the extra time to find and reclaim missing dogs.
- Guarantee staffing of the facility and public access during posted hours. The shelter is currently open Monday through Friday from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., and at other times by appointment.
- Separate dangerous dogs from those available for adoption.
- Provide safe, clean comfortable housing for the animals at the facility.
- Lower euthanasia rates resulting from lack of adequate access to the facility and no commitment to adoptions.
- Create an animal shelter advisory board to meet monthly about issues pertaining to the county facility.
Regarding the league’s request for Saturday hours at the facility, County Administrator Dan Sleeper said if the animal shelter is opened on Saturday, a licensed landfill operator would have to be present since the property is a secured facility.
The league previously asked the board in September to make changes at the facility, such as lowering the cost of adoption, staffing the facility with volunteers on Saturdays, partnering with other rescue organizations to transfer dogs and using county jail trustees to clean and maintain the facility. But supervisors said no money was available.
But the board was more receptive during Tuesday night’s meeting.
Chatham-Blairs Supervisor Hank Davis said: “The kill rate is awful.” Davis said the county is spending $48,000 to send cats to the Danville Area Humane Society.
Staunton River Supervisor Marshall Ecker said property next to the county landfill, where the animal shelter is located, could be used to house cats.
Dan River Supervisor James Snead said conditions at the facility are “not something to be proud of.”
According to statistics from the league, Pittsylvania County transferred no dogs to rescue organizations in 2007, unlike Henry, Campbell, Patrick and Franklin counties. Pittsylvania also had the highest reported euthanasia rate among the counties in 2007, at 84 percent.
Harville, Davis, Snead and Sleeper agreed to schedule a meeting with league members during the week of June 29.
“We do have some complications here, but there’s no reason we can’t work through them,” Harville said, alluding to the potential obstacles of trying to open the shelter on Saturdays.
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