But a recent Fox8 report 2,000 animals unaccounted for when county officials took over Guilford County Animal Shelter left one of my readers with some questions he thought I should share. From the report:
"When we first took over there were 808 [animals] at the shelter,” said Grier. "2,000 animals listed in the system we don't know whereabouts."
Over how long a period of time?
Did the missing animals ever actually arrive at the animal shelter or did they disappear before they got there?
You see, while the United Animal Coalition was responsible for running the shelter itself, the people who drive the trucks and pick up the animals are Guilford County employees. We should quickly be made aware where in the chain of custody the animals were when they disappeared.
And this:
"Commissioners are looking at building a new 300-animal facility either on the same property or other county land."
How many animals is the current shelter designed to hold? If there were 808 animals in the shelter when the County resumed control then 300 hardly seems like enough.
What is the average number of animals in the shelter on any given day?
Is the County proposing a larger or smaller animal shelter than what we currently have now? And if smaller then how is the county able to justify doing so?
We have a huge problem with unwanted, seemingly disposable pets here in Guilford County. It's time something was done about it, something other than stop gaps and band aids. Public-private partnerships and no-kill shelters haven't been the fix all people hoped they would be. Hold our county commissioners feet to the fires but at the same time acknowledge pet owners are the root cause of the problem. Then ask yourself what you can do to work towards a permanent solution to the problem as what we've been doing thus far isn't working.
