Activists Drop Lawsuit Against Robeson County Animal Shelter

by Stephanie Feldstein · 2010-06-28 15:43:00 UTC
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Two months after the Gerber Animal Law Center of Raleigh filed suit against the Robeson County Animal Shelter on behalf of activists, they've decided to withdraw the charges.

Robeson County has been a sore spot for animal activists for a long time. The shelter has been accused of killing animals people want to adopt. They only recently stopped the inhumane practice of killing by "heart sticking," an injection directly into the heart. The staff has been accused of mistreating animals in the shelter, and their kill rate has hovered around 90 percent. Last Thursday, more than a dozen witnesses testified at a hearing about the appalling conditions at the shelter.

And on Friday, it was announced that the activists were dropping the lawsuit. Their attorney, Calley Gerber, said they were pleased with the county's response. "We'd rather work with the county to make the shelter better than to fight them in court."

I'm all for collaboration. And, there have been some changes around Robeson County, even if they didn't spring from a gung-ho, time-to-do-the-right-thing attitude. The Board of Health, which supervises the shelter, voted to end "heart sticking" — they were one of the last shelters in the state using the method, even after a bill had been proposed to outlaw it in the state. Shelter director Jeff Bass was finally reassigned away from animals and, under court order, the shelter stopped euthanizing animals once someone expressed interest. After that, the board adopted a policy to give rescuers an extra 48 hours to claim strays.

Lo and behold, the shelter's kill-rate dropped from over 90 percent at this time last year to below 25 percent since the policy was passed. And, I'm pretty sure that saving all those lives didn't cause some sort of apocalypse in Robeson County. Health Director Bill Smith said, "It's a new day at the shelter."

I'd like to believe him; I really would. But this is the same guy who, a couple weeks ago, threatened to close the shelter if the activists didn't clean up their act. Then, according to the Fay Observer, after the hearing he said he hopes critics of the shelter will move on to another cause.

Maybe Smith doesn't get the spirit of collaboration. Or maybe he just doesn't get the art of the soundbyte. Robeson County, it's up to you to give activists a reason to move on to another cause ... and I hope you make it happen.

Gerber is reserving the right to re-file the suit if Robeson fails to follow through, but she says she believes that the county meant it when they said things were changing for the better. Despite Smith's somewhat tactless rhetoric, I'm cautiously optimistic. Robeson County Animal Shelter is still under the microscope, but Gerber's confidence in what lies ahead is a good sign. Robeson has been the pinnacle of How Not to Run a Shelter for so long, that if they really can turn things around, it would be a huge step torward a future where shelters and rescues working together to save animals is the norm, not the exception.

Photo credit: Nhandler

Stephanie Feldstein is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.
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