Murphy – Eight months after Sheriff Dustin Smith was named animal control officer for Cherokee County but given no resources to handle the job, officials are meeting Monday to see if there is a better way to deal with vicious and out-of-control dogs.
Cherokee County commissioners, sheriff’s office officials, health department officials and Valley River Humane Society representatives will hold a work session at 6:30 p.m. Monday to discuss animal control. The meeting will be held in the commissioners’ boardroom, Room 342, at the Cherokee County Courthouse on Peachtree Street downtown.
Sheriff’s Capt. David Williams spoke during the public comment portion of board of commissioners’ Aug. 19 about misconception concerning the sheriff’s office’s abilities to deal with unwanted and vicious dogs.
Following Williams’ comments, Commissioner Ben Adams said the board has been talking about the issue for two years, and it was time to do more about it. He called on the board to pick a date and have stakeholders – including the health department, which has been missing from previous discussions – meet to find solutions.
The board chose Sept. 30. Meanwhile, sheriff’s officials and the humane society have been doing their homework in preparation for the meeting.
On Sept. 12, representatives from the sheriff’s office and Valley River Humane Society met with animal control officials from Caldwell County, where the county has an “Animal Care Enforcement” department that provides an array of services, including a shelter, adoption and education programs, and low-cost rabies vaccinations. It also investigates animal cruelty, dangerous dogs and rabies cases.
The Caldwell County agency maintains a vibrant Facebook page that keeps its more than 15,000 followers up to date about adoptions, education and other relevant information.
Richard Gilliland, director of the Caldwell County Animal Care Enforcement and vice president of the N.C. Animal & Rabies Control Association, and John Runion, field enforcement supervisor at Caldwell County Animal Care Enforcement, shared “better ways for the organizations to work together to provide better services to the citizens, and animals of Cherokee County,” according to a release from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.
“A frank conversation was held discussing the needs and limitations both organizations face providing a minimal level of services to the community,” according to the release. “Mr. Gilliland provided guidance and recommendations on how to move forward, facilitating the discussion and providing options that he has seen work across the state.
“According to Gilliland, there is only one other model set up like this in the state he is aware of, and it brings its own unique challenges. While it has hurdles, he thinks it will work with community and commissioner support.”
“This was a great step,” Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith said. “This was a really great conversation between the leaders of the humane society and the sheriff’s office. This helps to prepare us for those conversations we will have with the commissioners on the 30th.”
Caldwell and Cherokee counties is not an apples-to-apples comparison.
Caldwell County has a population of around 80,500, and its government has an annual budget of $124 million. Cherokee County’s population is around 29,500, and its government has an annual budget of around $58 million. While Caldwell may possibly have a bigger animal control challenge, it also has more resources to draw from than Cherokee.
A retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general who lives in the western part of Cherokee County, Don Reynolds became president of the Valley River Humane Society Board of Directors earlier this month. He attended the meeting with the sheriff and Caldwell County animal control officials, and believes Cherokee County can adapt some of what they learned in that meeting.
“There are 300 animals in the shelter; our max capacity,” he said in a message posted on the humane society’s Facebook page. “When we are at max capacity, we cannot accept any additional animals.”
Reynolds said the organization regularly fosters, adopts out and transports animals to waiting families; “however, no sooner do we open spaces, than they are immediately filled.” What they learned from Caldwell County helps find collaborative solutions “and facilitated a starting point.”
Reynolds said he has also met with officials in Clay and Graham counties, which also contract with the humane society for animal shelter services. Cherokee County accounts for about 74% of animals at the shelter, with Graham County at 15% and Clay County at 11%.
“As a no-kill shelter, the primary goal of VRHS is to compassionately reduce the number of homeless animals in our communities, while minimizing the expense to the taxpayers. The cost of housing, vaccinating, neutering/spaying and caring for these animals, while they wait for their forever homes, is substantial,” Reynolds said.
“Without the incredible dedication and determination of our staff, volunteers, donors and the counties’ support, these animals would suffer, die or reproduce. We need everyone’s support.”
A lingering problem
At the board of commissioners’ meeting on Jan. 11, residents spoke about a neighbor with dozens of unrestrained dogs making life miserable off Postell Road. But unlike in 2023, when the board was unable to come to terms over creating a local dog ordinance, that time, the board had an answer.
The board appointed Smith to be the county’s animal control officer. The appointment required his cash-strapped, over-worked force to take on more duties with no additional resources other than the title and authority that comes with it.
Animal control is an issue for the whole county, but should fall under the health department, Smith said at the time.
The new title gave Smith the authority to decide and declare when a dog is vicious and remove it from the owner. But the sheriff doesn’t have a facility to take vicious dogs to – the Valley River Humane Society is already overcrowded, and Smith doesn’t have it in his budget to pay for other counties to take Cherokee County’s vicious dogs while awaiting final disposition.
His deputies need to receive additional training and certification at about $500 per course – again, without additional funding.
The sheriff’s office is one of the most underpaid in western North Carolina and north Georgia, Smith said. The only deputy who had animal control certification left for another agency.
Smith was hoping to create a non-sworn, part-time position to handle the extra workload and keep his sworn deputies from having to take on the work, which includes following up on cases and maintaining paperwork. He also needs extra funding to pay other counties to house seized dogs.
And if an incident involves a dog bite, Smith said he was counting on the health department to follow though with the quarantine process necessary to determine whether a dog has rabies.
Commissioner Cal Stiles said in January that the county pays Valley River Humane Society a quarter-million dollars a year to house stray animals. He has a problem paying that and also paying other counties to house Cherokee County’s vicious dogs.
Smith said in his new role as the animal control officer, he would enforce state laws, but wasn’t going to start picking up stray animals.
One example
In a recent Facebook post, Cherokee County resident Ron Stoessell described the problem off Postell Road.
He said the group Lost Dogs Run has fed the dogs daily for nearly eight months at a cost of about $700 per month because the owner can’t afford it.
“He has (I think) 25 adult and young dogs and one puppy besides this new litter,” Stoessell said in his post. Lost Dogs Run started feeding the dogs in January when they learned that a litter of puppies had frozen to death outside the cabin.
“At 77, I do not have the energy to continue taking care of the dogs,” he wrote. “When I stop feeding them, they will be back on the highway and down at McDonald’s, etc., to be hit by cars and/or starving and, if in a pen, dying of thirst.”
Stoessell was at the county commissioners’ meeting in January about the public nuisance problem in which various state statures were broken, including lack of rabies vaccination, letting female dogs in heat run loose, no identification on the loose dogs and lack of shelter and food.
“At that meeting, the sheriff was made (as I recall) the county animal control officer by the council. The sheriff told me the health department should handle this and not his department.
“Over the past two years, I have filed complaints with the sheriff’s department asking them to check on the animals’ welfare. I was told that as long as there was water available (which could be from a stream), shelter available (which could be underneath an abandoned car) and food available (which could be from anyone, e.g., Lost Dogs Run, McDonald’s, etc.) (the owner) was in compliance. (The owner) could have a hundred loose dogs, and it would be OK with the sheriff’s department.”
Stoessell said he was seeking legal help to force the county to do something about the problem.
“I have the financial resources for the legal fight and there doesn’t seem to be an alternative, other than the dogs starving or me feeding the dogs for the rest of my life,” he wrote. A lawsuit against the county “can bring out the underfunding, and perhaps we can get a solution for VRHS.”