Stray dogs and other animals currently have nowhere to go in Roanoke.
The county commission of Heard County, Ga., has asked for some conditions to be met if it is to agree to take on stray animals from the City of Roanoke.
Roanoke police chief Tino Brooks approached Heard County in April about the possibility of using Roanoke’s budgeted $10,000 for animal control to pay Heard County to house some of Roanoke’s stray animals. The proposed agreement would send 5-10 animals to Heard County each month.
But Brooks reported to the Roanoke City Council Monday that Heard County is now asking for Roanoke to also agree to cover any euthanasia fees that may be incurred for animals that are not adopted. That fee is $52 per animal.
The problem of stray animals in Roanoke has grown in recent years due to the unraveling of the sheltering system that was once in place.
Roanoke has not had an official home for stray animals for nearly a year after Main Street Animal Hospital discontinued its agreement with the city. That agreement was struck after the city ended its annual $10,000 payment to the Randolph County Animal Shelter, citing the Shelter’s lack of space to house Roanoke animals.
Roanoke was consistently being told that the county shelter had no room for its animals, and the Roanoke council at the time agreed that spending $10,000 and receiving no services in return was not a wise use of the city’s money.
Main Street Animal Hospital agreed to take on Roanoke’s strays, but ended that relationship after public backlash over euthanized animals.
“I feel like that was really unfounded,” said Roanoke mayor Adam Melton Tuesday. “He wasn’t euthanizing every animal that came in there, or even anywhere close to that. He was working to get those animals adopted out, and to my understanding was pretty successful at it.”
Even if Roanoke is able to come to an agreement with Heard County, that is seen only as a partial and/or temporary solution. The limited number of animals that Heard County would take would leave Roanoke code enforcement officials having to decide which strays to transport and which ones to leave on the streets. It would be a something-is-better-than-nothing arrangement that would at least give Roanoke an option for removing aggressive or otherwise problematic animals from the city’s neighborhoods. But it would be far from a full solution.
The city’s budgeted $10,000 for animal control is currently not being used.
Melton said in Monday’s council meeting that it may be worth revisiting a relationship with Main Street Animal Hospital to see they would reconsider a relationship with the city. Brooks said he would reach out to veterinarian Nick Baldwin to gauge Baldwin’s interest in that.
