The Brown County Humane Society is taking the first steps toward expanding or rebuilding its shelter on State Road 135 South.
The Brown County Area Plan Commission and the Brown County Commissioners voted unanimously to change the zoning for part of the land the society owns so that a bigger building can be constructed.
The current shelter, built in the 1980s, is “worn out and really is inadequate,” board member Sue Ann Werling told the plan commission.
There’s no space in it to segregate puppies, kittens and sick animals from the general population; or for potential adoptive families to spend time with the animals before they commit. Currently, all puppies, kittens and sick animals go into foster care, she said.
There’s also nowhere to store pet food, so it’s being kept at volunteers’ homes; and some employees work from home because of the space crunch, she said. There’s also nowhere to store the society’s van; it has been vandalized when it’s been left outside at the shelter, she said.
The society does have a barn on the property which it uses to store some items and to stage its annual barn sale, but supplies such as pet food can’t be stored there because it isn’t weather-tight, she said.
Five-and-a-half acres of the humane society’s property had been zoned R1 (residential), and the other 1.2, where the shelter sits now, had been zoned GB (general business). The society was asking for the R1 part to be changed to general business as well.
One neighbor spoke against the zoning change. Ora Smith, who lives about a quarter-mile south of the shelter, said he was against the society putting the shelter there from the very beginning, and he still is. He said he can hear dogs barking and the noise causes him to not be able to enjoy his yard in the summertime. If a bigger facility is needed, he suggested building it somewhere else.
Tom White, who identified himself as Smith’s cousin, said he’s in favor of the change. He lives about a quarter-mile north of the shelter across State Road 46 East. “They’re on a shoestring, and physically in a cracker box,” he said about the society’s budget and building. He said he hears dogs sometimes, too, but “I think back to when we were all young and we made a bunch of noise, too, and nobody ever kicked us out.”
More than 25,000 animals have gone through the shelter in the past 30 years. Total intake has fallen about 50 percent over the past six years due to a countywide spay/neuter initiative, Werling said.
She said she doesn’t anticipate needing to hire more staff or that more animals will be taken in after the project is finished.
The humane society received a raise last week in the contract it has with Brown County. About 25 percent of the animals the shelter takes in come through Brown County Animal Control officers, Werling said.
The society had been getting $37,500 per year in taxpayer support, but commissioner Diana Biddle suggested that be raised to $40,000, which was approved.
Over the next couple years, Biddle wants to see that amount go up to $50,000.
“They do a fantastic job, and I think that we are one of the larger beneficiaries of their services and I think that we can do better (in funding them),” she said.
She estimated it would cost “a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year” for the county to run an animal control facility on its own.
Commissioner Jerry Pittman called the society “wonderful” and singled out its SPOT spay/neuter program for helping to decrease the number of strays in the county.
“If you have any love for animals at all, you’ve got to really appreciate what they are doing,” he said.
Werling said last week that many aspects of the building project are still up in the air, including whether or not the current shelter will stay and be added onto or a whole new one will be built.
The time frame on when the project will move forward also is undetermined.
Fundraisers will be staged. Werling promised to share more information as soon as it is available.
“We’re very, very happy to have the support we have in the community,” she said.
