Deep freeze prompts round-the-clock pet neglect calls in Montgomery

With Alabama temperatures hovering in the teens for days, Montgomery animal control officers spent the holidays responding to pet neglect calls around the clock.

Some of those calls have now led to legal action, Montgomery Humane Society Executive Director Steven Tears said.

Tears declined to give details on the cases but said officers “ran wide open that whole time.”

“Any time you lose (a pet) it’s unfortunate, because it was such an easy thing to fix,” Tears said. “We did our best to get it out there that you need to bring them in.

“… I just don’t get it. It’s Alabama. It gets this cold like one week a year.”

MHS operates the animal shelter as well as animal control for the city and county. It’s facing a budget shortfall of at least $350,000 this year because of steep increase in the cost of medicine and a lack of shelter space, problems made worse by a rise in animal neglect cases that require that pets be held in the shelter while cases against owners proceed.

The Montgomery City Council said in October that they plan to form a committee to discuss their options to deal with the shortfall. There has been no change since then, Tears said.

Meanwhile, MHS has closed an east Montgomery shelter that gave adoption numbers a brief boost.

That adoption center, near Bell and Vaughn roads, was open for about four months and helped pets that don’t deal well with louder environments. The shelter location adopted out about 100 animals. But budget issues forced Tears to divide the staff over two locations, and the situation became untenable with so much up in the air.

It’s possible that location could re-open in the months ahead, he said.

Shelter staff thanked those who helped or adopted pets over the holidays as part of the “Operation Silent Night” campaign. Volunteers helped throughout the holidays, and families agreed to take 17 animals who were still at the shelter to spend Christmas Day with them.

Tears said the biggest immediate issue they’re facing now is a need for cleaning supplies and things like litter and cat food as they try to keep up with a jump in the cat population. “Local vets help us, but they just can’t handle the volume,” he said. MHS has a wish list from which donors can buy items and have them sent to the shelter from chewy.com, or donors can browse needs and give directly at montgomeryhumane.com/donate.

Anyone interested in becoming an MHS volunteer can call 334-409-0622, ext. 202, or email volunteers@montgomeryhumane.com.

Brad Harper covers business and local government for the Montgomery Advertiser. Contact him at bharper1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Deep freeze prompts round-the-clock pet neglect calls in Montgomery