Murphy – Plenty of folks in purple showed up Monday night for the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners meeting to show their support for animal control.
The group was led by horse rescuer Annette Ensley, who has helped care for the horses seized from local resident Janice Dockery. The horses are now subject to a civil lawsuit by their veterinarian to protect them from alleged mistreatment.
Ensley informed the commissioners,
who paid more than $25,000 to care for
the horses while they were wards of the court, that if this ever happens again, they can fill out a petition with a cost of care document and have the case resolved within 30 days.
Ensley praised the commissioners for funding an animal control officer for the sheriff’s office. She asked that they continue their efforts toward animal control, including perhaps establishing a board to help enforce animal ordinances and settle issues.
Local resident Aurelia Stone also spoke during public forum about creating land-use regulations for horses, requiring that owners have 2 acres for the first horse and 1 acre for each additional horse.
None of the commissioners made any comments during the presentations regarding the issues discussed.
In other county business Monday:
* The commissioners approved spending $13,145 to training a new K9 officer to replace Ajax, who served the sheriff’s office faithfully until his recent passing. The money used will be mostly from federal forfeiture funds obtained from drug dealers, the very people the new K9 will be asked to help bring to justice.
* A majority of the board voted to go forward with a split-level building for the new Emergency Medical Services Station 1 project on Jackson Street at an estimated cost of a little more than $1 million.
Commissioners Dan Eichenbaum and C.B. McKinnon continued their protest votes against the project. McKinnon did voice his opinion that the building should be only one floor, but to no avail.
Group shows support for animals at county meeting
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