10/25/07
At max capacity, Animal Shelter struggles to meet needs
By Jerriod Grizzle

JERRIOD GRIZZLE/Manning Times

More than anything, they just want a home. With more than 140 animals, staff and funds are stretched thin.

It’s 8 a.m. at the Animal Shelter of Clarendon County. This is when Rena Morrison starts her day. It starts with feeding.

“It all comes down to who gets what. Some of these animals have very specialized diets so you have to pay attention to who gets what,” she said.

Then, comes walking the dogs and with 141 of them currently in residence, they can be quite a challenge. Morrison said the shelter’s volunteers will spend anywhere from one to two hours walking dogs. And then it’s “poop” detail.
“It’s a large job, we have to pick up what was left behind last night and at the same time we take notes to see how the animals are doing and see if we need to do anything to one particular animal,” she said.

The next part of the day involves cleaning.

“We spray down the kennels with disinfectant and clean the bowls. Whatever food is left over from last night we throw away to keep out disease,” she said.

With all that out of the way, its time to repeat the process.

“Once we get done cleaning, feeding and walking, its time to do it again before we go home,” she said jokingly.

JERRIOD GRIZZLE/Manning Times

The Animal Shelter of Clarendon County is at maximum capacity, according to Shelter Manager Rena Morrison. Volunteer Ruth Mathis suggests a licensing fee to fund animal control personnel to reduce the County’s stray animal problem.

And that is just the dogs on the outside of the shelter. On the inside of the less than year-old structure are cats and also dogs with specialized needs. They have to be taken care of just as well as the ones who live in the outside kennels.

“All the cats stay inside and then there is a protocol for what dogs go inside,” she said.

Morrison stated that dogs with heartworms, those that are going in for surgery and those that are being brought out of surgery are in inside for the safety of all involved.

“Right now I’ve got 20 puppies in quarantine to keep every other animal safe,” she said.

Morrison and her volunteers are dedicated to their shelter of 80 dogs and 61 cats.

“It’s a labor of love. You don’t do it because you want to, no one wants to do it but you have to. That’s why I do it, it’s a labor of love,” she said.

One any given day, there are at least six volunteers at the shelter working eight hour days.

Morrison said her love for her job and the animals is so great that she has gone to some extreme measures to keep the dogs comfortable all night.

“There are a lot of horror stories. People that let their dogs roam to the shelter instead of bringing them directly to us. I’ve even stayed in the pens some nights, up to all night long to take care of sick animals; waking up every hour or so to give dogs pain medication. When your vet is out of town and you don’t have anyone coming until 8 a.m., what else do you do?” she said.

Of course, Morrison doesn’t credit herself that much. Most of her praise goes to the volunteers at the shelter and the ones that keep the shelter running.

“I’m so proud of my volunteers. And to add to that we have vets and vet techs that work pro-bono in order to keep costs down,” she said. “The shelter couldn’t run without them.”

Morrison stated that over 50 percent of all the animals she sees have heartworms.

“Just last week I had to order $794 in heartworm medicine,” she said.

However, Morrison does say that there is one part of her day that she does not enjoy.

It’s “the calls,” as she refers to them.

“Clarendon County doesn’t have animal control like other counties. The local officials and I are stuck when ‘those’ kinds of calls come in,” she said. Many citizens expect the Shelter to take every stray and for someone to deal with every animal control problem.

Morrison said that just last week she had a situation where an animal control officer was needed to go handle a situation in the rural part of the county.

“This dog had taken residence under this person’s porch and wouldn’t let the homeowner or the other dogs out of the house. Needless to say, the resident was very angry at the fact that I couldn’t help her,” she said.

Morrison said she sees a need for county animal control everyday. However, there is an issue – money.

“Well, first you would have to train someone to deal with animal control such as training them to handle a wild dog or a rabies-infected animal. Then you would have to give them the proper equipment and then finally he or she would have to be on the payroll as a county employee,” she said.

County Administrator Bill Houser shares Morrison’s concerns about these animals but stated that again, it was about money.

“It isn’t in the budget right now,” he said

However Morrison and Houser say they are working on a way to pave the way for new animal control policies.

“Right now, we are working with the Animal Shelter to develop new animal control policies. Once we get that done, we can move forward,” Houser said.

Morrison agreed that she was working with Houser on writing new animal control policies and that the shelter was using every possible resource they could to come up to develop them.

“We have borrowed from other counties; we have asked people to research state law to find out what other people are doing. Right now we are in our third draft to send to the county,” she said.

Houser stated that once the final copy is submitted to the county, it would be looked at with very heavy consideration and action would be taken from there.

Ruth Mathis, who volunteers part time with the shelter, suggested that maybe licensing would be in order.

“People move here from all around the area and most of the people that come from up north are very surprised that we don’t have licensing fees. I get asked that question on a regular basis,” said Mathis, who is a stylist at L.G.’s Cut and Style on North Brooks Street.

Mathis stated that her clients often ask her where to get license for animals and the the issue got her thinking.

“It would be a great way fund the Animal Shelter and provide (funds) for animal control,” she said.

Mathis said that with a little help from the surrounding community working with the Animal Shelter, animal control just might be possible.

“It takes people coming together with great love. You can come up with all kind of solutions. We have to be the voice for the animals,” she said.