Despite some social media posts suggesting otherwise, members of the Daviess County Fiscal Court say the government is still funding the Daviess County Animal Shelter & Control. While they are researching alternative funding structures, no decisions have been made and no options include eliminating funding.
A Facebook post began circulating Tuesday stating Fiscal Court is considering defunding the animal shelter. All four Fiscal Court members said that is not the reality.
In fact, they noted that the County budget includes $1.3 million for Animal Control, up almost $85,000 from the previous fiscal year.
“There’s nothing new to report,” Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen said Tuesday night. “The shelter operates just the same as it was 4 months ago.”
In April, the Fiscal Court decided the clinic would only provide spay/neuter services for low-income families and those who receive public assistance. The move came in part after Fiscal Court members learned the clinic was providing services to animals from outside Daviess County — meaning local taxpayer money was being used for services on animals from surrounding counties.
At that time, Fiscal Court members said they took the situation seriously and began exploring alternative solutions.
Fiscal Court addressed the issue again last month, saying the County was still reviewing the shelter’s current funding structure.
Following Tuesday’s social media posts, Castlen and all three commissioners affirmed they are not considering defunding the shelter and instead are brainstorming ideas on how to improve the financial structure in a way that increase the shelter’s sustainability and ensure long-term success.
Castlen and Marksberry said they are in favor of a model similar to the one used by the Bowling Green/Warren County Humane Society. There, the Humane Society functions with a stipend from the County, with grants and donations to fund other projects.
Castlen noted that if Daviess County adopted a similar model, he does not foresee defunding the shelter’s budget.
“Ultimately, I think the Bowling Green model is a very good model and I would love to see it. Perhaps I’m hopeful that we could wind up with something like that,” Castlen said.
With this idea, established nonprofits — such as SparKy, the Owensboro-Daviess County Humane Society, and more — would work on the animal adoption portion. At the same time, the County would allocate funding for the Animal Control side of operations.
“I believe Fiscal Court will be on board with this if they see a strong unity in our community and have all of you, fellow animal lovers, working together and setting aside preconceived notions or egos, and only focusing on the welfare of these animals,” Marksberry said.
Yet, she and Commissioner Larry Conder acknowledged that Daviess County’s $1.3 million budget for Animal Control does not compare to Warren County’s $3 million for their shelter. Because of this, Conder feels the better approach is to restructure the shelter’s current leadership.
Instead of the current leadership with Director of Legislative Services David Smith presiding over Animal Care & Control, Conder proposed an animal healthcare professional oversee the operations of the organization and report to Fiscal Court. He said he made that proposal roughly 5 months ago.
However, the Judge-Executive did not support the proposal, citing funding and leadership turnover as potential issues.
“I didn’t want to add additional costs to the budget. That’s why that’s not happened, because if I just hired somebody to oversee the [Animal Care & Control] and that works well under [one judge-executive] and they don’t work together under another, there’s the conflict,” Castlen said.
Conder still believes that having someone else in the shelter’s leadership role will be sustainable for the organization as a whole.
“I believe it’s a good [solution]. I think that our pets and animals are part of our family, as I said before, and we should make this right. Have we made mistakes in the past? Sure we have, but we need to pony up here, admit and correct those mistakes,” Conder said.
Commissioner Chris Castlen said that with the information he has, he is not in a position to vote on any specific plan at this time. However, he does not support any act to defund the shelter.
“With the knowledge I have now, I’m not ready to make any changes,” Castlen said.
Through all of the discussions, all four Fiscal Court members agree there is no active plan nor intention to defund Animal Care and Control.
“We’re looking at different options, and no decisions have been made yet. I’ll put it that way, but I can assure you that the defunding [claim] that was on the Facebook post that prompted this, is absolutely not true,” Charlie Castlen said.
Director of Animal Care & Control Ashley Thompson deferred all comments to the Fiscal Court.
