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Article published Jan 14, 2008 Animal groups debate kill policy of new shelter
By Joel Davis of The Daily Times Staff
Hard words have marked the growing spat between the Blount County Humane Society and other local animal care organizations over the use of euthanasia at the planned county animal shelter. As the Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation celebrated the ground breaking of the new animal shelter on Tuesday, Steve Phipps, president of the Blount County Humane Society, was sending out a mass e-mail accusing SMACF and other organizations of betraying their principles. “The animal organizations that make up the Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation were originally founded to preserve animal life yet they are embracing and supporting a system that brings death to millions of dogs and cats each year,” Phipps wrote. “ArfNet, AnimalWorks and Blount Care have abandoned their core beliefs to promote a kill shelter.” Phipps has been vocal about what he calls “the dirty little secret” of the proposed animal shelter. He is an advocate of building a no-kill shelter in Townsend. “This nice new shelter they are building is going to be killing 60 to 70 percent of the animals ... that’s the dirty little secret of animal shelter work,” Phipps said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “We are not saying that we don’t want them to build the shelter. We just want them to be truthful about what kind that they are building.” The new shelter is being built on a 12-acre site located behind the Boys and Girls Club, 241 Currie Ave., in Maryville. It could be in operation by the end of June. Chris Protzman, president of SMACF, said that nobody wants to kill animals but that relying on no-kill shelters is not realistic. “We’ve got to get back into a coalition mindset and not ‘us versus them,’” he said. “There are animals that are going to be homeless again if we don’t get this done by July. Let’s quit arguing about it ... the adoption networks are overloaded. We have a situation where there isn’t enough room in the inn. You have to think logically.” A “no kill” shelter is classified as a shelter where less than 20 percent of animals are euthanized. “You can have a better solution than an animal control shelter,” Phipps said. “The Blount County Humane Society is striving to do that. We are the ones standing up for the animals.” Euthanasia is wrong, Phipps said. “That’s the bare cold facts and everybody glosses over that,” he said. “When you have a perfectly healthy animal that’s standing in front of you — it’s not mean and aggressive, a lot of them are puppies and kittens — and you stick a needle in them and they die. You are not killing them because they are sick or in pain. You’re killing them because they don’t have an address. We think that’s morally wrong.” The Web site of the Human Society of the United States, the national organization, offers another opinion on euthanasia: “The HSUS believes that humane euthanasia of homeless companion animals is preferable to the poor quality of life they may endure without the companionship and care of a loving, responsible home environment. Millions of dogs and cats enter shelters every year in the United States, but according to the best estimates available, only about 50 percent (3 to 4 million) of these animals are adopted. Currently, it would be impossible to humanely keep all of these homeless animals in shelters.” County Commissioner Steve Samples, chairman of the Animal Control Committee, said much the same. “I don’t think it’s realistic (to rely on a no-kill shelter),” he said. “We have so many animals here in Blount County that we’re having to pick up on a daily basis. The good thing is that if they are successful in building the no-kill shelter, we would be happy to give them a call on day one to pick up any animals we can’t get adopted.” On April 19, the Blount County Commission authorized spending $350,000 in seed money for an animal shelter. The commission approved the floating of a short-term loan from the county debt service fund balance to pay for the project. Since that time, SMACF has been moving forward with efforts to build the shelter on the county-owned property behind the Boys and Girls Club. Plans call for the new Blount County Animal Center to feature an adoption center, more than 140 kennels and a medical suite. Blount County is currently relying on the Loudon County Shelter to house homeless and abandoned animals. Animal control has been a subject of controversy since the previous County Commission declined to continue funding a contract with the city of Maryville for animal control services. That contract expired Dec. 31, 2006. “I’m an animal lover,” Samples said. “Every animal I’ve got is a rescued animal. I wish we can have several no-kill shelters in the area, but for the county to be involved in a no-kill shelter is just not practical at this time. Here we’re trying to build a first-class facility and here the Humane Society is shooting arrows at us. I thought we were all in this together.” The current Blount County Commission voted Jan. 18 to hire an animal control officer. The Loudon County Commission has agreed to accept stray and unwanted animals at the Loudon County Animal Shelter for $4,000 per month. The Loudon County Commission has reauthorized the agreement to house Blount County animals until the end of June. County Commissioner Wendy Pitts Reeves said she is dedicated to getting the county shelter up and running. “There is room for both and there is a need for both,” Reeves said. “It’s unfortunate to me that this is being portrayed by the BCHS as an either-or situation because it’s not.” Blount County Animal Control will respond to calls at (865) 228-0024 Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. On Fridays, an animal control representative will be in the parking lot of the old Hubbard School, 3509 Tuckaleechee Pike at the corner of the pike and Hubbard School Road, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. to receive animals. County residents may bring unwanted dogs or cats there to be surrendered during those times. Blount County Animal Control can only respond to calls relating to dogs and cats. The Animal Control Committee has authorized the animal control officer to respond to animal control calls on the weekend as well.