BENNETTSVILLE — Coming together for a meeting of the minds, Jennifer Hyduke, President of the Marlboro County Humane Society addressed Bennettsville City Council’s concerns surrounding its contract renewal with the shelter, chiefly in regards to accurate monthly reporting, financial responsibilities, and the shelter’s ongoing capacity crisis.
City Administrator William Simon Jr., said the humane society is currently operating without a contract with the city of Bennettsville, emphasizing at the outset the goal of the two-party meeting between council and shelter representatives is to reach a renewed contact that all sides feel comfortable with moving forward.
Capacity blues
Starting off her presentation by getting directly to the point, Hyduke said, “The update is that we are full.”
Given the city is requesting in its negotiations for the shelter to provide five kennels and three feline housing spaces 24/7, Hyduke reiterated the shelter is not only operating without a contract with the city, it is operating a 35 animal capacity facility with a total of 115 animals in its care.
She protested, “We can’t agree to that, there is no way we can agree to that. We can’t make space. We can’t create space. To always have five kennels available– impossible. They [animals] have got to be there 10 days before we can move them.”
Councilwoman Caraline Harpe agreed, sharing she has toured the facility and surveyed its current conditions for herself.
She said, “I don’t even know how you are housing as many as you are. I have seen the kennels stacked on top of each other in bathrooms, in offices, just everywhere.”
In addition to strays, the shelter also deals with residents’ buyer’s remorse, reporting that residents relinquish their personal animals upwards of 25 to 30 times per month.
“Sometimes we can’t take those, so we’ll put them on a waiting list,” she said.
Councilman Cy’Heim McCrae questioned hypothetically, how many spaces Hyduke thinks are realistically required and might be feasible to house the animals.
She answered, “I don’t know that we can guarantee any spaces. I’m just not sure how that would work. We don’t have room, we have 115 dogs right now. And that shelter is built for 35. We do not have very many local adoptions, most of our adoptions still go up North for rescue. Sometimes we have two transports a month, but most likely one transport a month. They can take anywhere between 10 and 35 dogs at a time. But then we fill right back up.”
Councilwoman Harpe suggested making short term decisions with long term solutions in mind.
She said, “I think we have to look at what we can do in the short term and plan for a better alternative long term. Some of us have had a conversation about possibly adding some outdoor kennels as being something maybe we could quickly do on the current property to house dogs.”
Hyduke explained the shelter does have a backyard that could be equipped with kennels, but only in the neighborhood of eight or 10 inside the fenced area.
Asked if the shelter is looking at other buildings or properties to purchase, Hyduke answered in the affirmative, but decried local real estate costs, and also cited an inability to find folks willing to sell. Another suggestion advanced by council was a car port option to house additional kennels, however ventilation and drainage needs were emphasized.
Finding Councilwoman Harpe’s short term solution of adding kennels to be the most economic and expedient solution to the issue, Hyduke stressed that simply adding kennels in the backyard of the shelter will not suffice long term or when the area is facing inclement weather.
In response to questioning by Harpe, Hyduke confirmed the humane society is currently only accepting dangerous animals.
She said, “There was a bite case in, I think it was Clio [a man was injured in a dog attack that occurred in Wallace], last weekend and I think we had five or six from that [dogs]. So, that took off and we had to move animals around to make room for those.”
Overall, Hyduke’s long term solution is “Start encouraging people a little better to spay and neuter their animals.” She stressed that as long as people continue to ignore the elephant in the room the problem will always plague the community.
Foster care, Rescue, and Non-profit help
One option Hyduke says her organization relies on is animal foster care.
“As long as we provide food, vet care, a dog house or whatever it takes for them to hold on to that dog until we have room for it,” Hyduke explained, adding, “We have some fosters but we do need more.”
She said that in addition to foster care, the shelter also relies on rescue groups, sharing they are always on the lookout for new rescue groups to partner with and the shelter currently works with five rescue partners.
One of the biggest obstacles Hyduke says she runs into at the shelter is finding rescue groups who will accept dogs who have heartworms, and says most of the strays seen at the shelter suffer from heartworm infections.
Paying late: Show me the service!
A sticking point in contract negotiations for Councilman McCrae is the shelter’s proposed 10% late fee clause.
“So, we don’t make our payment on time and you are proposing a 10% addition to it [payment]. But on the other hand, if we were to agree to these terms, with the pet registration and with this penalty, but then on the other hand when we call, or one of the residents calls and you all don’t have space– I think that is kind of the balance.”
McCrae added that he wanted to guarantee to his constituents the shelter can take strays when needed. He said,“Y’all are services instead of donations now. We just want to be able to find how we can support you as well as get our services that we should get, or the residents should get.”
In response, Hyduke again reiterated the shelter’s current overcrowded capacity stats.
She countered, “Well now the shelter has 115 animals in there. I can’t tell you right off the top of my head but a lot of those animals are from the city limits of Benennettsville. So, you are getting your services. But I do see what you are saying.”
Addressing the late fee, Hyduke explained the reason for its proposal is that when the city is late, it puts an undue financial burden upon the shelter, who is largely dependent upon it for funding. The shelter reports that it receives over half of its funds through private donation.
“Before your new fiscal year started, we were being paid late a lot and that really hurt us. Like we were weeks overdo a couple of times,” Hyduke said.
Sharing an all too familiar scenario, McCrae questioned why, if the city is paying its monthly installment on time, and its residents are then told there is no room at the inn, should the city continue paying its monthly payments to the shelter when it is not receiving service.
Mayor Tyron Abraham stated that he agreed with Councilman McCrae regarding the late fee, also on the grounds that there are times when the shelter does have to turn away animals from the city.
Hyduke answered, “Your animals are what is filling up that shelter. City and county, right? So, you are getting that service. You just don’t have enough of it.”
When it came to discussing the shelter’s latest monthly installment payment plan with the city, Council members Harpe and Jennings differed, with Harpe favoring a lump sum payment and Jennings preferring to stick to a monthly due date.
“I like the monthly set up,” Councilman Jennings explained, adding, “Set it up on a time schedule instead of saying a quarter, which could be the first week or the 13th week.”
Preparing a monthly report and hiring Animal Control
“We do not have the staff or the time to do an extensive report every month,” Hyduke said.
She explained that with the shelter’s current resources, any reports the organization could provide would be strictly narrowed down to the bare minimum.
Hyduke said, “We can do a report, but we would have to cut it down to the basics. If you guys want to appoint someone to do that or have animal control responsible for gathering that information, we don’t have a problem with that. But I cannot sit here and tell you I have a person that I can delegate that duty to.”
Council also discussed the possibility of hiring an animal control officer, stressing the position is a 24/7 job that requires a flexible candidate. According to officials, there is no specific training for animal control officers provided, instead the shelter relies on outside organizations like non profits for local training.
Hyduke asked how the council might promote responsible pet ownership in Bennettsville, Councilman McCrae filled the long pause that followed her question with suggestions of a shelter-led workshop for the public, or offering space to the shelter at events to showcase animals or hype local adoptions. Another idea mentioned was to include humane society resource information on city utility bills or an option to include a donation to the shelter with payment.
Registered and Chipped
Councilman William Jennings said he thought better registration on the part of the city of Bennettsville could be another solution.
He said, “If we had a better registration program, maybe a little bit more enforcement on our code of laws for stray animals. On the city side, not the shelter.”
Jennings pointed out that the city would have more than a dog’s leg to stand on if the stray is chipped as belonging to a specific owner.
“If you had a registration chip, that type of program put into place and you know it is that dog, then we have a reason to fine somebody for allowing their dog to be a stray.” He added, “If we are not going to do our part of code enforcement there is no way, you probably couldn’t build a place big enough in Marlboro County to hold a stray animal,” Jennings reasoned.
Councilwoman Harpe said she thought adding a chipping option to the city’s registration program could be an economical path forward.
She suggested, “Say we did a voluntary pet registration program, could we offer that as a service you pay $30 voluntarily to register your pet, so that we can make chipping a part of that,” adding that sometimes a dog gets loose without a collar but microchipping is an easy way to locate pet owners.
Agreeing, Hyduke said, “I think that is a great idea because if you let them do voluntary registration, and other people know that they might be getting something more out of it, an incentive like the microchipping, you might be more successful with the program.”
Thinking outside the box, McCrae asked if there are any non-profit groups, similar to the Red Cross, who instead of collecting blood, spay and neuter animals. According to shelter representatives, organizations that usually offer such services often charge more than the Marlboro County Humane Society does for spay and neuter services.
Council agreed to take into consideration all options and information discussed, with the possibility of requesting another meeting with the Marlboro County Humane Society before any final contract decisions are made.
In closing, Mayor Abraham said, “We thank you both for y’all coming out and this is a start to kind of working together. The biggest thing is letting our citizens know that we are working together.”