Robeson County Animal Shelter Back in the Doghouse

Earlier this summer, things had been looking up for Robeson County Animal Shelter in North Carolina. Robeson had a well-deserved spot at the bottom of the barrel as far as animal shelters go: they killed dogs as soon as someone expressed interest, they shut out rescue groups who wanted to save animals, they kept half of their cages empty (killing about 88 percent of the animals that came through their door to do so) reportedly to make it easier to clean the shelter, but the cages were still typically in deplorable condition.

But then Jeff Bass, the shelter manager accused by local activists of animal cruelty, was ousted and interim manager April Lowry took the helm. Lowry came in with the attitude that she wanted to turn things around and start working with rescuers and promoting adoption. Sounded good. Until the shelter failed two state inspections.

The first inspection by the Department of Agriculture was on July 29. Among the dozen or so violations were inadequate vet care for sick animals, temperatures above 85 degrees, improper food storage, insect and rodent infestation and overcrowding in cat cages. The shelter failed again when the Department of Ag followed up on August 12.

Following the report on the inspections, County Environmental Health Director Albert Locklear said most of the violations had to do with overcrowding and he's optimistic that a new policy requiring adopted pets to be spayed or neutered should help once it kicks in on October 1.

But not much was done in the weeks since Robeson received its failing grade, and last week, the state issued a warning letter threatening to yank the shelter's operating license. Robeson County had ten days to respond with a plan and a timetable for improvements; their homework is due tomorrow.

Health Director Bill Smith says he doesn't blame Lowry for the ongoing problems. Instead, he seems to be back to his old standby of blaming the activists. "We had been under so much pressure not to euthanize, we were just running with too many animals and the staff didn't have enough time to clean or work with the public. We're down to a reasonable number (of animals) now."

Without any big adopt-a-thons in the past few weeks, "down to a reasonable number" sounds like a euphemism for "we took care of the problem by killing a bunch of animals." And it might be. Between the last failed inspection and Smith's quote, more than 50 puppies were put down due to a parvo outbreak.

Susan Barrett, the activist who filed suit against the shelter in the spring, had agreed to drop the charges after Lowry was brought on and the county pledged to do better. But they're not doing good enough and now she's put them on notice, too, threatening to reopen the lawsuit if things don't turn around.

It's probably not Lowry's fault, or at least not entirely. Robeson County Animal Shelter is in a deep, dark pit where administrators (many of whom are still the same) think it's okay to kill animals just to keep cages empty, despite being a "shelter," and, when they stop killing animals, fail to hire more staff or implement new sanitation standards and aggressive adoption programs to get those animals into homes. While there are activists, rescuers and other community members who want to help the animals, North Carolina isn't the easiest place to run a shelter. I think Lowry was handed a raw deal and, well-intentioned as she might have been, didn't have the chops to handle it.

Lowry's contract is up this month and Robeson County hopes to have a new shelter manager hired in the next few weeks (assuming they're not shut down and tied up in court). This time around, they need to hire someone who actually has both experience and passion for helping animals. It may be their last chance.

Photo credit: ian.m.phillips