Scapegoat Shelter ...

Dear Editor:
Despite the fact that the County Council meeting of Nov. 9 did not concern the Animal Shelter of Clarendon County, there were plenty of people eager to take advantage of the already hyped up situation and denigrate the shelter with jeers and gibes and stories of how the shelter failed them.

I found it interesting, the number of people remarking that the shelter didn’t deserve funding, or that this county doesn’t even need a shelter. At the moment, there are 69 animals housed at the shelter. Shelter employees and volunteers are not allowed to bring in animals. So where do you think these animals are coming from? They are brought in by the residents of Clarendon County!

For those of you who complained that the animal you wanted to drop off wasn’t accepted, you left out the part about the shelter personnel telling you, in most cases, when space might become available if you could wait for a period of time. They can’t create space where this is none! If you went in and acquainted yourself with the shelter facility, you would realize that with limited funding comes limited capacity. Even if there are outside pens standing empty, there’s an isolation building full of dogs that will occupy those pens once their quarantine period is over.

The Animal Shelter of Clarendon County does a great service on very limited means. They deserve support from the county they’ve served in the past, and hopefully will be able to continue to serve, not the dissing they had to take Monday night.

Sincerely,
William Boucher
Manning, S.C.