‘Huge numbers of animals.’ Why Humane Society and Dickson County split.
The Humane Society of Dickson County and the county government are separating over a disagreement about operating costs.
Meanwhile, the City of Dickson will continue to use the Humane Society shelter, which was opened in 2017, for its custodial, medical, and animal adoption services.
The county had paid the nonprofit $45,000 annually but was asked to pay $150,000 going forward.
Humane Society Humane Board President Carrie Parker Peery said the organization housed more than 500 animals annually the last two years.
“It was costing the HSDC substantially more than the county was paying,” Peery said.
The city and county had worked with the Humane Society since 2019 for those services.
Dickson County government in recent weeks began using the decades-old former Eno Road animal control facility.
When the three-way partnership was instituted nearly four years ago, officials said that the Eno Road facility was in disrepair and would likely need to spend at least $200,000 on a renovation or new facility.
How did county, Humane Society reach crossroads?
County Mayor Bob Rial and Peery started a conversation during the summer and “met several times,” according to Peery.
“We told (Rial) that the HSDC could not continue to operate county animal control services at current funding levels with the numbers of animals that the county was bringing us,” Peery said.
They anticipated the county and city wouldn’t be able to pay “what it costs per animal,” Peery said.
“But we did not expect this on the scale of where we were finding ourselves with the huge numbers of animals,” Peery said. “We knew this was not sustainable nor equitable for us and that in order to provide the quality service we provide to the county that we had to have more money in order to provide the service.”
Rial noted in a letter to county commissioners that the Humane Society was seeking a 333 percent increase.
“The sheriff and I vowed to work with them,” Rial wrote. “The sheriff wanted to do research on how other animal control units operate across the state.”
The mayor said Sheriff Tim Eads was completing his assessment when the county received a notice in October that the Humane Society was considering canceling their agreement. A month later, Rial wrote, the county received a notice that the Humane Society was exercising its 60-day right to cancel.
What's next?
“At that point we had an emergency meeting with various county officials to come up with a temporary solution to meet the challenging timeline we were given,” Rial wrote. “The quickest and most humane way we could address this situation was to re-institute the County’s former Animal Control Building.”
He said Eads is organizing a plan for a long-term solution for animal control “without being at risk of a similar disruption by the decision of a local organization in the future.”
Peery and Humane Society leadership is asking citizens to contact their county commissioner. They believe using the aged former animal control building "extremely disappointing on many levels" including concerns about care quality, euthanasia policy, after-hours care.
"Regardless, as a non-profit, we are not in a financial position to provide services to Dickson County at a significant loss," Peery said.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: ‘Huge numbers of animals.’ Why Humane Society and Dickson County split.
