| Care for animals returns to spotlight |
By: Donna Ryder, Associate Editor
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Posted: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 9:03 pm
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By DONNA RYDER
Associate Editor
Changes may be made in Union City when it comes to the care of stray animals.
Union City interim city manager Kathy Dillon confirmed this morning that Ken-Tenn Humane Society’s former president, Lois Birk, sent a letter to the city giving a 90-day notice to end a contract between the group and the city to run the dog pound. But, at issue is whether or not she has the authority to terminate the contract.
Ms. Dillon told The Messenger the city’s attorney has questions as to the validity of the letter because Mrs. Birk is no longer the president and the letter did not come from the Ken-Tenn Humane Society’s board. The interim city manager said she contacted Mrs. Birk and was told that it is the feeling of “what’s left of the board” that this is the action which needs to be taken.
The letter to the city comes after complaints were filed with the Union City Council at its meeting last week. Union City resident Roger Kimmell asked why, after two years, the society had not built a building, saying in that time the dogs “have been sitting in mud half the time.” He said he has had friends who have been arrested, fined and had their animals taken away for less than what is happening at the animal shelter.
Complaints about the shelter, being operated as Ann’s Place, had also been brought before the council in July 2009. Residents said there were problems with overcrowding and an abundance of flies and it appeared the Ken-Tenn Humane Society was exempt from the animal laws in the city.
In a letter sent to The Messenger after last week’s meeting, Mrs. Birk says, “Because of the coordinated attack by a misguided group of troublemakers, I assume the shelter will close.”
She says the group had “very high hopes for the building and operation of an animal shelter.”
Mrs. Birk continues, “The city leased a piece of property to us and we began housing animals there. The organization spent over $40,000 on the initial set up and far more after that. This depleted our supply of cash.
We soon learned that due to an easement running through the middle of the property and the swamplike conditions of the land, we could not put a building on that site.”
Ms. Dillon said she did know about a sewer line which runs across the property, but said the city was unaware of its location until after the property was leased to the group. She said she cannot confirm the condition of the property as having “swamplike conditions” and is unsure if the council was ever notified that the humane society was under the impression that it could not build on the property.
The interim city manager said several options were discussed by the Union City Council Monday night during an orientation session. The city could build a building, use an existing building or bid out the contract for the dog pound. No official decision has been made. Ms. Dillon said they all agreed that “we need not to let this happen again.”
The Ken-Tenn Humane Society took over housing stray animals picked up by the Union City Police Department after Tim Doyle submitted a letter invoking the clause in his contract to end his relationship with the city as the dog pound’s manager in June 2008.
Doyle came under fire when “Pudge,” a mixed breed dog owned by Wanda and Rodger Tanner of Walker Tanner Road, was picked up outside the city limits, taken to the shelter and put to sleep the very next day. Doyle’s contract specified that animals picked up and brought to the shelter were to be kept at least five days to give owners an opportunity to claim their pets. At the time, Doyle said the killing of Pudge was because of a mix-up in paperwork. It wasn’t the first time there had been complaints about Doyle and the condition of the dog pound. The late Gordon Stovall was a regular at council meetings years before the incident, complaining of the conditions at the dog pound.
Mrs. Birk even says in her letter, “I visited the old pound several times. It was a dark, dank, damp, smelly place where the animals were left to await their Thursday date with death.”
Mrs. Birk’s letter to The Messenger can be read in its entirety on Page 4.
Published in The Messenger 3.9.10
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