The City of Georgiana is getting some welcome assistance from the Butler County Humane Society in their efforts to combat the town’s long-standing issues  with stray dogs. BCHS members learned about the exciting new development at Wednesday’s regular monthly meeting.

“Carlton Cook, who is the new police chief of Georgiana, is really cracking down on the stray dog population in town. He will be strictly enforcing the leash law which is already on the books,” says Kimberly Matthews, vice-president of the BCHS and herself a Georgiana resident.

The proof of Cook’s determination to alleviate the city’s issues with strays can be seen in the number of canines already taken off the streets in recent days—19, with still more to be captured.

“The problem is our city/county shelter here in Greenville can only handle so many animals, and the situation can be overwhelming for our animal control officers,” says Matthews.

The solution? This week the BCHS is ordering four 10×10 portable pens with heavy-duty reinforcements to loan to the south Butler County city. The four pens will be installed in Georgiana on a concrete pad formerly used for washing the city’s fire trucks to serve as a temporary holding facility for stray animals.

“This location is great—the pens will be sheltered and there is drainage and a heavy-duty sprayer to allow the kennels to be washed out with ease. The area is also enclosed by a cyclone fence,” said Kandys Killough, BCHS president. “We will provide the food, water dishes and any supplies they may need while they are being housed by local law enforcement in south Butler County. The chief will no longer have to worry about immediately transporting the animals to the Greenville shelter and whether or not there will be room for them when he gets there.”

Once space is available in the Greenville shelter, the animals will be transferred there to await adoption/rescue commitment.

“The ladies at the shelter are thrilled this is happening and so are we,” said Killough.

More good news was shared during the meeting concerning the organization’s continued effort to decrease the county’s surplus animal population.

“We have so many stray dogs, especially mama dogs, and their puppies in the county as a whole. Often people will take the puppies to the shelter but they keep the mama dog with good intentions to get her fixed later—and it doesn’t happen and there are even more puppies,” Killough explained. “It’s just not fair to those poor mama dogs or their babies.”

The BCHS now plans to have the animal control officers give residents the option to bring in their female dogs to have them spayed completely free of charge, with the humane society picking up the tab. 

“The puppies will be taken in for adoption/rescue commitments and the mother dogs can go home with no more puppies to come from them,” said Killough. “I really believe that this will be well worth what we as an organization spend to have the female dogs spayed, in terms of reducing the number of unwanted animals in our communities.”

Killough says this option is will also be available for female cats with litters of kittens.

In other BCHS news, plans continue to fall into place for the organization of the Butler County Junior Humane Society, which will officially begin holding meetings at 10 a.m. January 13, 2018 at Killough’s Wite Road home.

“We already have sign-up sheets out at all the schools and we will be sending out waiver forms and our mission statement to all those interested before the Christmas holidays,” says Matthews. “We are looking forward to getting a humane society geared to our younger residents underway in our county. We are going to have a lot of fun and inject some youthful enthusiasm and energy into our organization.”

Killough concurs.

“These kids are the future of our humane society—it’s important to get them interested and involved now,” added Killough.

In terms of fundraisers, the BCHS will be holding a yard sale at the By-Pass Storage Units in Greenville this Saturday, Nov. 11 from 6 a.m. until noon, with “something for everyone,” said Matthews.

An announcement about the winners of the Youth T-Shirt Design Contest will be coming up by early next week, and those interested are encouraged to check the BCHS’s Facebook page.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Butler County Humane Society is set for Dec. 13 at 1 p.m. at the Camellia City Bakery in downtown Greenville.