Shelter policies explained

Dear Editor:
During the last two weeks, there has been much misinformation in the community regarding the adoption policies of the Humane Society of Morgan County. As the society’s shelter manager, I would like to set the record straight.

The Humane Society is a private non-profit, charitable organization. We take in as many dogs and cats as we can handle with a limited budget and staff. We are not in a position to take in every animal that is offered to us. When we have no space, we cannot take in more animals. When we do have space, we decide which animals to accept based on their health, age and any behavioral problems that may impact their adoptability. Any animals that we take in are given all their shots, spayed/neutered, implanted with a microchip and cared for until we find them a forever home.

The Humane Society shelter is no-kill and never euthanizes any animal in our care. Every animal that we take is kept for as long as it takes to find it a forever home. We recently adopted out a cat that we had for three years. She is a wonderful animal and it was unfortunate it took that long, but she was loved and cared for in that time. We just adopted out a pit bull dog that we had for two years. It was a wonderful animal that unfortunately took us a long time before we found it a forever home.

There was a recent incident in which two dogs were offered to us that we did not accept, and this has caused much misinformation. People brought in two puppies that were in poor health and we had no space available. We gave the people information on where to take the dogs.

Unfortunately, these dogs were abandoned illegally in the Food Lion parking lot. We received calls about the dogs and gave them information to contact Animal Control to pick up the dogs. Someone picked up the dogs and brought them back to us. They were given food for the emaciated dogs and told of a shelter that would accept the dogs. Unfortunately, we could not do more.

I urge any interested individual to visit our shelter. I will be happy to give you a tour and let you visit with the wonderful animals in our care that are available for adoption.

Andrea Anderson
Shelter Manager
Humane Society of Morgan County