Murphy – Cherokee County leaders are making headway in efforts to handle some of the more pesky problems related to animal control.
The board of commissioners held a work session on Sept. 30 to address animal control issues without raising taxes or enacting an animal control ordinance – the two most powerful tools to control the county’s chronic problem with vicious, out-of-control and homeless animals.
The work session included representatives from the sheriff’s office, health department and Valley River Humane Society, all present to answer questions from county commissioners.
About 50 people attended the meeting, although public comment was not allowed. One audience member was escorted out of the room after shouting at representatives from the humane society during the meeting.
The upshot: Cherokee County will accept two fully equipped animal control vehicles essentially donated by Caldwell County for $1 each. Caldwell will also donate chip readers to help identify missing animals.
Meanwhile, county attorney Darryl Brown will meet with humane society officials to come up with an agreement to house dogs brought in by the sheriff’s office.
Left to do is formalizing the contract and deciding how the sheriff’s office will staff animal control. Sheriff Dustin Smith is advocating two new civilian animal control positions in his department, but that requires funding.
Having civilians do the job as opposed to sworn deputies would avoid the temptation to redirect them to law enforcement duties, Smith said. The same is true of having dedicated animal control vehicles, as resources previously focused on animal control were rerouted to law enforcement.
Commission Chair Randy Phillips said future work sessions and decisions will be left to the next board, which takes office in December. Phillips and Commissioner Jan Griggs lost their re-election bids to Justin Hyde and Alan Bryant, respectively. Hyde and Bryant are unopposed on the November general election ballot and, unless something unprecedented occurs, will take office in December.
Answering questions
The Sept. 30 work session was the most substantive meeting in the last two years between stakeholders in the animal control issue. County commissioners have been wondering what the county has been getting for its $250,000-per-year contribution to the humane society, while humane society officers have been struggling to make ends meet amid what they believe to be underfunding by. Cherokee County as well and Clay and Graham counties.
All three counties pay the humane society money each year to house homeless dogs and cats, but Cherokee County makes up about 76% of the animals at the shelter.
The shelter is chronically over capacity and struggles to meet state requirements for animal care and facility regulations. The majority of its $1.3 million annual budget comes from donations, and the facility relies on volunteers to supplement paid staff.
Meanwhile, in 2023, the sheriff’s office was formally tasked with dealing with vicious and out-of-control animals – dogs, primarily – but Smith soon discovered that resources earmarked for animal control were directed to law enforcement by previous sheriffs.
Commissioners declined a bid by Griggs to enact an animal control ordinance in the county in 2023, but the county is still obligated to enforce state laws – which mainly govern dogs that aggressively bite people or animals that are rabid. In some cases, dogs are seized as evidence in a crime and must be kept at substantial cost to the county.
The last time the county and the humane society had a contract was 2011, and Brown said what the humane society does now is open to interpretation.
Since taking on a formal animal control role in 2023, the sheriff’s office has been notifying owners when their dogs are a problem and letting them know they could face a $25 civil penalty.
Sheriff’s Capt. David Williams said the sheriff’s office has no way to capture, transport or house dangerous dogs. If a dog’s owner can’t be identified, the sheriff’s office is powerless, he said. There is also no way for the sheriff’s office to deal with nuisance animals and strays.
There is also nothing that prohibits dogs from being kept in what some may regard as insufficient shelter, such as a camper shell, under a car or inside barrels cut in half, which is often how bear hunters house their dogs.
Williams advised that the county could start from scratch and pay for animal control and a new shelter, or work with what they have – “bite off that big chunk of meat and chew on it, or make existing agreements work,” he said.
Humane society
Cheyenne Spicola became the local animal shelter’s manager in summer 2023.
She has a decade in a number of positions of increasing responsibility across the veterinary care and management industry, including hospital manager at Lake Chatuge Animal Hospital. She is a certified veterinary assistant and technician and holds several certificates in nursing and veterinary care and is recognized by her peers as a best-in-class leader with strong strategic, financial and inter-personal and problem-solving skills, according to a release from when she got the position at the Valley River Humane Society.
She addressed a number of questions and complaints about how the shelter is run, including why it doesn’t allow unscheduled walk-ins, how it determines what animals an individual can adopt and why it accepts animals from counties that don’t pay for animal services.
Spicola said the shelter seeks to avoid placing animals in homes that are unlikely to be successful, such as a puppy with an elderly person unable to adequately meet the puppy’s needs.
“We want to find the best home and environment for these animals,” she said.
Spicola said unscheduled walk-ins are disruptive to the animals and staff. And the shelter accepts desirable dogs from outside the region to enhance the desirability of van loads of dogs the shelter takes to other states and Canada.
Don Reynolds, a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general who recently became president of the humane society’s board of directors, said the shelter has capacity for 121 cats and 121 dogs, but has 150 dogs at any given time.
All animals receive rabies vaccinations and any necessary medical care. State law requires one employee for each 10 animals, he said.
The shelter transports 30-40 animals to other states and Canada once or twice a month, but the dogs tend to be the most desirable – small dogs and pure breeds – or other organizations would not accept surplus animals from Cherokee County. However, the vacant stalls are quickly filled as new strays and unwanted animals arrive, Reynolds said.
A contract between the county and the humane society spelling out the number of stalls available for sheriff’s office drop-offs would help, he said, adding that a local animal control ordinance would also be helpful.
Commissioner Dan Eichenbaum praised Spicola and Reynolds for their presentation to the board, saying it was the first time people from the shelter explained the processes. He said the information puts things in a “brand new light for us.”