Supervisors question Humane Society

Published Tuesday, April 8
By Jebb Johnston
Staff Writer

The Alcorn County Board of Supervisors had a lengthy dialogue with the Corinth-Alcorn County Humane Society director Monday as they attempt to learn more about the shelter operations. County supervisors said they have received some complaints regarding shelter procedures.

District 3 Supervisor Jeff Rencher asked Shelter Director Michael Boston for a monthly or quarterly report to help keep the board up to speed. "I think it's a very important job," said Rencher. "We need somebody in the county to do your job, to watch over stuff like this. When people have complaints, they call us and complain and we have to try to address them. We have to learn more about what we're addressing, and the only way we learn more about it is to ask questions."

District 2 Supervisor Jeff Patterson said all of the complaints he has heard involve "how people are confronted" in alleged cruelty cases.

Boston said it's never an easy task to investigate alleged animal abuse. "I've been threatened," he said. "Every cuss word in the world has been used. I don't cuss them back. I am tough. I am strong because nothing will happen if I'm mister nice guy. When they call you, they don't say what they told me." Boston said he can't disclose specific information about complaints because of privacy concerns, but supervisors said they need to hear both sides of the story to address complaints.

"If you're not going to be open with us, then we're going to have to make a decision based on the information we have, and you may not like that decision sometimes," said Patterson.

The shelter gets reports of cruelty on a daily basis. "I do the best I can to investigate those," said Boston. "I'd say at least half, if not more, of the cases I go on there's no neglect and no cruelty. It's a neighbor or relative that's unhappy with somebody and they're using me to give somebody a hard time. But I don't know until I can actually go and see for myself whether there's a problem. I give them ample opportunity to fix the problem and then check back with them at a point in time. "It's a lot of trouble to go to court. If we can work it out with them satisfactorily, I think that's the best way."

Rencher said the director essentially represents the county when he goes onto private property for investigations and must handle the duties with respect.

"I promise you that I will do my best on the next cruelty case I go on to keep the complaints to you all from coming in," said Boston.

Patterson, who has had a past adoption application rejected, also inquired about adoption guidelines. "I'm just trying to find out, because about three years ago, I carried my little girl to the pound," he said. "We wanted to adopt a cat. One of my guys that works for me on my road crew went down there two weeks ago with his little boy and wanted to adopt one of the dogs. They were turned down also. I don't know how people can know what you're wanting to do if they don't know the guidelines."

But Boston declined to do what he equated with revealing all the right answers to a school exam. "We have to have a process," he said. "If everybody was a wonderful pet owner, I wouldn't have taken in all those thousands of animals in the last 10 years I've taken in and all those cruelty cases. "We look at (the applications) hard," said Boston. "It's an emotional, passionate thing with people whether they're good pet owners or bad."

Boston said the last animal seizure occurred eight years ago when officials took custody of a horse.

District 4 Supervisor Gary Ross told of a situation in which his daughter went to the shelter to look for her missing puppy. "Whoever was there refused to let her go and look to see if their puppy had been picked up," said Ross.

"That's not our procedure," replied Boston. "We are an open facility. Lots of shelters are not open facilities."

Supervisors also noted a complaint about prison laborers taken onto private property, which Boston said he would address. The issue of variable pricing of dog adoptions was also discussed.

"When you have an escalating scale, I'm not accusing anybody, but I'm saying it's more of an incentive to pick up that registered dog," said Jimmy Tate Waldon, district 5 supervisor.

Boston said the shelter gets very few rare, purebred dogs. He noted that all adopted pets are "fixed," so their only value to the adopter is as a pet.

In 2007, the shelter took in about 4,025 cats and dogs, with those numbers about evenly split between the city and the county. It was the best adoption year yet for the shelter, said Boston.

Barbara Rider, a board member of the shelter, said the humane society is an asset to the county, and she believes some individuals are trying to harm its standing.

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