ASHLAND COUNTY, Ohio — After a controversial line of policy surrounding euthanasia at the Ashland County Dog Shelter, community members voiced their concerns at a County Commissioners meeting Thursday morning.
In a new document of rules and regulations from the commissioners for the Ashland County Dog Shelter, a particular line, reading “Dogs that have been at the shelter for more than one year will be euthanized” caused alarm for shelter volunteers and community members.
At the meeting, advocates shared their desires to change or remove the language entirely.
“We want these dogs to be taken care of for their extended lives at the shelter. We do not want a date set on how long they reside there,” said Veronica Negrey, a volunteer at the shelter.
‘’We’re asking for you to not put a time limit on a dog – ‘this dog has been here 12 months, bye,’ that’s what we’re asking you to take off,” said Jesy Boales, another volunteer.
While community members expressed their concerns and frustrations with the policy, which technically took effect Tuesday, Denny Bittle, board president of the commissioners, said the policy does not mean all dogs who have been in the shelter for longer than a year will be euthanized.
In an interview with 3News earlier this week, Bittle also clarified that there are no scheduled euthanizations due to this policy.
“It was a miscommunication, a misunderstanding between me and I think this board and the community, but that was not ever the intention of that policy,” Bittle said.
PREVIOUSLY: Ashland County Commissioners update euthanasia policy at dog shelter, seek to quell community concerns
“I would hope people would see we’re trying to work along with them. None of us wants to put dogs down unless it’s absolutely necessary,” said Commissioner Mike Welch. “I just believe people, when they saw that, [they thought it] meant that Tuesday, the dogs are going down. That’s not the case.”
Bittle said that the language will be changed, and that moving forward, a small committee will be formed to review the rules and policies of the committee.
However, he did say that some sort of euthanasia policy needs to be in place.
“There are occasions that you do have to euthanize dogs for vicious, for health reasons,” he said. “We cannot be ‘no euthanization.’ That’s an impossible thing to do at a dog shelter.”
The commissioners also dispelled online rumors that suggested there was some sort of a kill list of long stay shelter dogs.
“People assume that it’s truthful,” Bittle said of social media claims. “There is nothing truthful about the euthanization of 12 dogs on Tuesday. Nothing.”
On Thursday morning, the commissioners approved changes to adoption fees for the remainder of the month at the shelter. For dogs who’ve stayed at the shelter for more than 11 months, adoption fees will be waived through the end of the month. For all other dogs, adoption fees will be reduced to $50. Owners will still need to pay for the license fees.
“I got the sense that the commissioners are definitely willing to listen to us and the public and make some changes,” said Laurie Mooney, a volunteer at the shelter and someone Bittle identified as part of the small committee.
