ANDERSON — A place once regarded by local animal activists as a kill shelter is finally gaining approval from those who criticized its practices.

Under new direction, the Anderson Animal Care and Control shelter has been receiving something from the local community that it hasn’t seen in years - praise.

Susan Frye, who runs a local pit bull rescue, says that prior to 2008, the shelter was not making a sufficient effort to find homes for homeless pets who passed through its doors.

“The emphasis was to get them in, house them for the necessary hold time, and euthanize them,” Frye said.

Rhonda Estes of the Madison County Humane Society said her organization routinely saved animals from the high rate of euthanasia at the city shelter.

“I was there just about every day, every other day,” Estes said, “trying to pull animals out of there to save them back then.”

In January 2008, newly elected Mayor Kris Ockomon ousted Larry Davis, the shelter’s director of 20 years, amid concerns over the shelter’s reputation.

Davis was replaced by local bus driver Larry Russell.

“There’s been a dark cloud over the animal shelter for a long time,” Ockomon said at the time of Russell’s appointment.

That ominous cloud, according to Frye, included the inhumane treatment of animals. “The idea of how to clean a kennel was to hose it down with cold water with a dog standing in it,” she said.

Amy Williams, who volunteered at the shelter six years ago, said she witnessed the cleaning practice.

“The dogs would try to huddle up in the corner of the cage while they were being sprayed,” Williams said. “I hated that. The animals would be scared to death and huddled in the corner. It happened every day, and we were there a couple days a week.”

Davis has denied that shelter workers hosed cages with animals inside. He is currently suing the city for wrongful termination.

Four directors and counting

Months after taking over for Davis, Russell resigned under public pressure following in incident in which 28 animals were euthanized, including one on hold for a rescue group.

He was replaced by local veterinarian Claudia Smith, who worked for the shelter on a temporary basis and drew criticism from the public for not having an up-to-date veterinary license.

Smith was replaced by Joe McClain, a candidate for the Anderson City Council in 2007 who had previously served on the Anderson Board of Public Safety, which oversees shelter operations.

McClain resigned in late 2008 and was replaced by co-directors Maleah Stringer and Heather Ridenour.

Ridenour and Stringer have split the salary of their predecessors and work side-by-side to reform the shelter and repair its reputation.

A changing policy

One of the many changes at the shelter since Ockomon took office has been a new policy in adoption fees.

Prior to 2008, dogs could be adopted from the shelter for $10 and cats for $5.

Those who adopted animals were required to have the animal vaccinated and spayed or neutered, Davis said.

Despite critics who say otherwise, Davis insists that the shelter did follow-up with pet adoptions to ensure that the spay-and-neuter policies were followed.

Today, adopted pets cannot go home until they’ve been vaccinated and sterilized. Adopters must pay $100 for dogs and $85 for cats, Stringer said. This fee includes surgery fees for sterilization and the cost to vaccinate each animal. This ensures that all pets get vaccinated and sterilized, she said.

Under the direction of Stringer and Ridenour, each animal in the shelter is also fully vaccinated during its stay at the facility.

Davis admits that he did not order the vaccination of all shelter animals. “I’m not sure the city would go to the expense,” he said.

“When Larry was there, it was a high-kill facility, and it was city funds,” Estes said. “If they’re euthanizing them, I could understand why they would not want to vaccinate.”

The vaccination and euthanization policies at the shelter were among the reasons Estes cites as her motivation for freeing animals from the facility.

Outreach and education

Something else that’s changed at the shelter, according to Williams, is the effort to educate the community about adoptable homeless pets. “There were no events in the community prior to Maleah and Heather,” she said.

On Aug. 1, the shelter will host its first open house and cookout for the public. The event, according to Ridenour, will include food, raffle prizes, door prizes and a microchip clinic where pet owners can get their animals microchipped for $25. Pet groomers will also be on hand.

The event, according to Ridenour, is one of many planned in hopes of changing the shelter’s image and getting the public involved.

Stringer and Ridenour have also implemented volunteer and foster care programs at the shelter.

Using local volunteers as coordinators, the programs have been successful in getting sick and injured animals into foster homes and keeping animals socialized with the help of volunteers.

Although the mayor says he has been encouraged by major changes in the philosophy at the animal shelter, he believes workers will find that changing public perception of the shelter, and instituting the best practices, will not be easy.

“For many, many years, I think Larry Davis got away with some things he shouldn’t have gotten away with,” Ockomon said recently. “It took the undoing of that, (and) it was going to take a while to fix it.”

Making space

Despite its efforts to make changes, the shelter remains burdened by an overpopulation of unwanted pets which continues to increase as the economy suffers.

On July 17, 74 animals were dumped at the shelter, Stringer said. It’s the most she and Ridenour had seen in one day since taking over in January.

The shelter, which is equipped to handle just over 200 animals, was already at capacity at the time.

In June, shelter officials were forced to euthanize 111 cats and 42 dogs.

Stringer and Ridenour say they make every effort to limit euthanasia to animals that are not adoptable due to illness or aggression, but when the shelter reaches its limit, space must be made.

Since January, 82.2 percent of the shelter’s dogs have made it out alive, but only 37.4 percent of the cats have left the shelter.

Cats, Stringer said, are dropped off at the shelter by the basketful, and adoptions for cats can’t keep up with the numbers.

Stringer and Ridenour have built a free-roam cat room for healthy cats and kittens, but many of the animals at the shelter remain in cages.

“If there was a magic wand that could be waved, the United States of America wouldn’t euthanize six million animals every year,” Davis said. “That’s tragic. It’s very tragic.”

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Contact Brandi Watters 640-4847, brandi.watters @heraldbulletin.com