N 7 O Article 12-22-04

peppercorns · Dec 22, 2004

Anonymous said:

Animal shelter tackles image
Pet's death spurs effort in Johnston

By MARTI MAGUIRE, Staff Writer

SMITHFIELD -- Ernie Wilkinson has been a politician, a traveling salesman and a businessman. But his latest job as interim manager of the Johnston County animal shelter is an entirely different animal.
Activists have long criticized the county shelter -- for using gas to kill animals, for failing to promote spaying and neutering, for destroying so many more animals than are adopted.

But when a family pet was accidentally killed in October while it was quarantined at the shelter, the chorus of voices crying for change grew louder.

County Manager Rick Hester hired Wilkinson, a former Kenly mayor who served on several county boards, to take a fresh look at the troubled shelter.

Some improvements he made quickly. For instance, a computer printout now follows each animal in the shelter to eliminate the kind of error that led to the death of Niko, a German shepherd.

But what he says is his hardest task -- combating the shelter's bad image -- means mediating an ongoing culture clash over the county's treatment of animals.

"The problems I've seen are more about people than anything else," Wilkinson said. "Fifteen years ago, the shelter was about dogcatchers. Now it's animal services. We're playing catch-up."

The county's three animal-control officers pick up stray animals, enforce county ordinances and answer complaints from neighbors.

In recent years, the shelter also has tried to promote animal adoptions and spaying and neutering to control overpopulation.

"They have to be more progressive because people come here, and they bring their views of the animals," said Maureen McMullen, a member of Habitat for Niko, a group formed to promote reform at the shelter after the October accident. "It's more of a pet, more of a family member."

Niko was quarantined at the shelter after attacking McMullen's dog, and McMullen is seeking to turn the group of about a dozen activists into a nonprofit. The group consists mainly of relative newcomers from the western part of the county.

They're not the first to take a stab at reform.

The old Clayton shelter was still shooting dogs when Melinda Barefoot opened the nonprofit Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter in Clayton more than 20 years ago, she said.

The Clayton shelter uses a gas chamber but keeps adoptable pets longer than the seven days the county shelter does.

Barefoot said animal activists in Johnston often run up against the "farm attitude" toward animals prevalent in more rural parts of the county.

"You work them or eat them or let them run loose," she said. "If you have too many, you get rid of some."

Barefoot hoped Johnston's suburban growth would spell good news for the county's animals. Instead, she said, growth brought more animals to both shelters.

The county shelter took in about 5,000 dogs and cats last year, Wilkinson said. In one day last week, it took in 73 dogs. It can hold fewer than 300 animals, and fewer than 30 percent are adopted. Some are returned to their owners. Officials estimate more than 2,500 animals are killed a year, or an average of about 50 a week.

Part of Wilkinson's challenge is meeting the expectations of the county's newcomers. Wilkinson has been meeting with the shelter's critics, along with other animal activists, seeking ways to meet their demands.

"Some of that criticism was well-deserved," Wilkinson said. "[The staff members] knew how to deal with animals, but sometimes they came up short on the people side."

Of particular concern were relations between staff members and animal activists.

"They mean well and may want to achieve the same thing, but it's hard to put the two together," Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson is reviewing options for increasing the number of lethal injections as an option to gas, including getting local veterinarians to contract with the county or working to get a shelter employee licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

He's also looking into an idea popular with the Habitat for Niko group -- an adoption center in the western part of the county.

But activists remain frustrated. McMullen said she hasn't heard anything from Wilkinson since their first meeting, and Barefoot said she has seen other attempts at reform fail.

"I don't think it's going to change," Barefoot said. "You can hire people to work, but you can't pay them to care."

Staff writer Marti Maguire can be reached at 829-4841 or mmaguire@newsobserver.com.
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As many of you know, I have had some health issues recently. This is why I stepped back and did not post for about a month or so. Now that I am OK, the holidays are here. So I am getting a plan together for after the New Year. Right no I need to legitimize Habitat for Niko with the State as a non-profit group. I think that this way they make take us more seriously. :wink:

PirateGirl · Dec 22, 2004

Nicely done.

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N 7 O Article 12-22-04

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N 7 O Article 12-22-04

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