Animal Shelter

The Clark County Animal Shelter is receiving a financial boost from state government to build a new facility and combat long-standing challenges with disease and overcrowding. County Magistrate Rick Smith, who chairs the Fiscal Court’s Animal Shelter Committee, announced last week that the state Animal Advisory Control Board has awarded a $125,000 grant to the shelter. The money will help fund a new 2,600-square-foot facility adjacent to the existing building on Iron Works Road.

Jessamine County will receive a $150,000 grant for construction of a new animal shelter, from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Because so many Kentucky counties applied for the grant, the animal control advisory board set a cap of $150,000 for the amount each qualified county could receive. Of 44 grant applicants for funding from the board, only Jessamine County and one other county received the maximum amount. The current Jessamine County Animal shelter was constructed in 1975 and is 2,000 square feet.

The Jessamine County Fiscal Court took over operation of the county's animal shelter July 1, and since the court made its decision, the advisory committee it appointed has been working to reconstruct operation of the facility. Mike Cassidy, who was appointed to the committee by the fiscal court, has been selected by the other committee members to serve as the group's chairman. He gave a report of the committee's activities to the court Tuesday night. Cassidy presented a written report and minutes from the two meetings the committee had since its members were appointed.

The Jessamine County Fiscal Court has been contemplating who should run the animal shelter for the county for more than a year, but the decision remains tabled and has yet to make its way back to the fiscal court’s meeting agendas. Last fall, the fiscal court was looking into the possibility of constructing a new, much larger shelter. The magistrates were also looking at running the shelter through the county instead of contracting it out to a third party. Currently, the Jessamine County S.A.V.E.

The long-awaited new animal shelter for Jessamine County took a giant step forward Monday as local officials gathered to break ground behind the old animal shelter on Park Drive. “This project is something we've been dreaming about for several years, and it's finally looking like it's going to come to a reality,” Jessamine County Judge-Executive Neal Cassity told the group of about 40 spectators. The new 9,000 square foot shelter will include public holding areas for dogs, cats and other animals that have been vaccinated and have been evaluated as “adoptable.”    Non-public areas in the shelter will hold animals that are waiting for evaluation and/or those animals that have been evaluated as vicious or diseased.

About 30 people sat in on Tuesday afternoon’s Jessamine County Fiscal Court meeting, anxiously awaiting the public-comment portion of the agenda. And about a third of those in attendance were ready to offer their input on the hot topic for the evening — how the county’s animal shelter should be operated. Several of those who spoke advocated for the county to continue to contract out the shelter services to one of the animal-activist groups in the area, but others sided with a proposal prepared by magistrate George Dean.

Shelter has male dogs for adoption The Clark County Animal Shelter has two male dogs for adoption featured this week. Jake is a black and white Labrador mix who is six months old. He will grow to be about 5-60 pounds. He was found as a stray. "Jake is a great puppy," said Beth Bowman, director of the shelter. "He listens well and is very attentive. " Jake has been at the animal shelter for about three months. He has not been altered, has had his first round of shots and has been dewormed.

Dear Editor, Below are questions I would like to ask the residents of Mercer County and Harrodsburg: 1. Do you know the location of your county animal shelter? 2. Have you ever visited there? 3. Did you feel safe, and that you were in the presence of compassionate professionals? 4. Were you proud of your facility? 5. Do you know how health and environmental concerns are handled at the shelter, like sanitation and the disposal of euthanized animals? 6. Did you find the hours convenient to your being able to go by to visit an animal you might want to adopt?

The Jessamine County Fiscal Court approved a bid by the Jessamine County S.A.V.E. Center to assume management of the animal shelter. "What they agreed to, $70,000 with an opportunity to come back for another $10,000 if they needed more. That doesn't mean we have to give it to them, but it left some avenues open there for communications," County Judge Wm. Neal Cassity told the magistrates at Tuesday's meeting. "It seemed pretty acceptable to the ones of us that were at the meeting.

LIBERTY - If plans go as anticipated, Casey County may soon have an animal shelter. Casey Fiscal Court talked about the need for a place for stray dogs and may put the shelter on a back lot of the former Green River Rest Home property on Campbellsville Street. "A dog shelter in Casey County is a problem that needs to be addressed," county Judge-Executive Ronald Wright told the court. Wright said plans for a facility to house state female inmates are progressing for the old rest home, but the decision is subject to Fiscal Court and state approval.

Aloma June Barnes Earles, of Berea, formerly of Winchester, passed away on May 10, 2013. Born in Point Marion, Pa., on Nov. 3, 1927, she graduated from Berea Foundation School and Berea College. She worked as a school teacher and as a social worker, and in later life as a financial aid administrator for Berea College. She was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church, Winchester, and later of Union Church, Berea. Her life was centered on providing love and hospitality to family and friends, and she will be missed by many.

When Stanford's Kisha Buis was given a camera following the birth of her son, she soon fell in love with a newfound hobby of photography, turning it into a profession. As a young mother, she realized how precious photographs of her child were, yet how expensive visiting a professional photographer can be. “Photography is considered a luxury,” Buis said, “Whenever you have kids, I don't think it should be. It is something you need, because your kids, they grow so fast.” Using the skills she learned, Buis began taking photos for others, starting with a friend's engagement photos.

Puppies are playful, cute and cuddly. On the other hand, puppies are also loud, messy and destructive. It is important to understand that your first night with your new puppy is his first night away from his mother and siblings. Up until now, your puppy was dependent on his mother for food, protection and comfort. Now, your puppy is dependent on you. It is up to you to provide pets with the care necessary to keep them healthy. They need nutritious food, plenty of attention, gentle training, safe toys, a comfortable home and proper veterinary care.

I had a call the other day asking me to inform my readers on the latest innovation taken by the Boyle County Humane Society animal shelter to prevent waste and save money. It involves spaying the female animals. For a little background, the shelter now has a rule (which is similar to what almost all shelters in the nation are doing these days) that all animals admitted to the facility must be spayed or neutered before being released to the public. The ruling was adopted in order to stop unwanted pregnancies and the proliferation of puppies and kittens.

Have you ever found what people name their animals to be amusing? I have, and the first part of this article is going to be about animal names. I have to begin with my friend Deloris. The name of her cat is Conway Kitty and her dog's name is Buddy Thegris to more or less go along with her last name of Segress. Now Conway Kitty has his own warm clothes to wear in cold weather as does Buddy Thegris. While we were at Snug Hollow, a bed and breakfast, we were discussing names of animals with the other people there over breakfast.

STANFORD - A grant-funded project to expand and upgrade the Lincoln County Animal Shelter is mostly complete and should be done by January. Construction on the new 16-run addition began this summer, thanks to an approximately $100,000 grant from the Department of Agriculture, Lincoln County engineer Alan Bowman said. Besides the extra capacity, the grant has also funded installation of a central heating and ventilation system, water fountain, outdoor drains and a dishwasher, Bowman said.

This is the ninth true story of a dog that has been blessed by a number of human angels at a time when he thought he had reached the end. I'll let him tell his own story. Merry Christmas, my latest name is “Christmas,” which is OK with me because I have been given the gift of life a second time. However it took a bunch of angels to perform this feat.  I don't remember much about my puppy days, my memories recall a fenced-in yard with nothing to do, not even anything to eat or drink.

This Christmas, even the four-legged community members won't be left out. After watching “Dog Tales” on the Animal Planet network, a Saturday tradition for Donna Campbell and her own dog, she learned about Operation Blankets of Love. The program was created by Eileen Smulson in California to provide animal shelters with blankets to put in animal cages. “The shelters don't have money in their budgets for luxuries,” Campbell said. Smulson's efforts eventually became a non-profit organization known as Operation Blankets of Love, and the collection has grown to include any items a dog or cat might need while living in a shelter.

For one little girl, knowing she's loved is more than enough. That's why 9-year-old Suzan Johnson has decided to share her birthday with some creatures who don't always know that love. Instead of gifts for herself, Suzan is requesting people buy items to donate to area animal shelters. “She said, 'I have a family who loves me and I don't need anything,'” Tessa Johnson, Suzan's mom, said. Tessa said the family had been looking to adopt another pet and visited both the Danville-Boyle County Humane Society and the Central Kentucky Regional Humane Society in Lancaster.

Imagine your family pet who doesn't wear a collar escapes out the front door left ajar by the men delivering your new furniture. Won't ever happen to you? That is what most people think, until it happens to you and you are frantically searching for your companion. Too often, animals that enter the animal shelter come in with absolutely no form of identification, making it nearly impossible to contact the owner. The statistics are frightening - one in three pets will become lost in their lifetime, and according to the American Humane Association, only 17 percent of lost dogs and 2 percent of lost cats ever find their way back home.