Members of the Joe Black Effort, a local animal rescue, have announced a meeting to establish a coalition for the humane treatment of animals in DeKalb County.
The meeting will be held at the UT extension meeting room at the new county complex, and will begin at 7 p.m., and all aldermen, mayors and veterinarians in DeKalb are invited.
According to a press release from organizers, the coalition is being formed to “ultimately remove the thousands of abandoned, abused and neglected animals in our county from dangerous or abusive situations, to provide a permanent location with an alternative no-kill policy so these animals may receive medical attention, be altered to reduce further overpopulation, and be cared for until they can be placed in new homes.”
The release goes on to say that, “It is imperative for local government and domestic animal-service providers to join hands and take action that best addresses our county’s needs.”
Rene Stufano, a member of the Joe Black Effort and one of the coalition organizers, said the task is a daunting one.
“Every day we receive phone calls with impossible solutions with the current status as far as caring for the animals in DeKalb,” she said.
“On March 6 we received a call from a resident whose neighbor had moved and left behind three dogs in a fenced yard behind her house,” Stufano continued. “He had actually tried connecting with us for a few days, but his work schedule and our volunteer status made it hard.
“The neighbor had been feeding the dogs, which was hard on his pocketbook, but he didn’t want the dogs to die there. He called JBE and told us the problem, so we contacted the owner of the property.
“She had moved to Mount Juliet and abandoned the animals in the fenced back yard of her home. When our volunteer called her, we asked for her to leave a verbal message on our phone giving us permission to go on the property and feed the animals, see if they needed medical care and remove them as we had available foster homes or adopters for them.
“The woman agreed, an hour later with no voicemail giving us permission to go on her property, our volunteer called her again. This time we asked her to write a surrender letter to Joe Black Effort, stating that she was surrendering the animals and giving Joe Black Effort permission to care for them on her property etc. Her response was ‘You don't understand, I've been in an accident, I can't write a letter and mail it blah blah blah.’ Our volunteer then asked her to hang up and leave the information on the voicemail as previously asked to do. This time her response was ‘I can't do that, I'm at the grocery store,” Stufano said.
“One of our volunteers drove over and looked at the dogs. They didn't look like they were at death’s door, but there wasn't anyone living in the home. There were also chickens and cats left behind.
“We called the city and they directed us to the county. The county said there was nothing they could do, and suggested we meet a couple of the volunteer firemen over there to act as witnesses.
“Witnesses to what? We know the animals are there, the neighbor is continuing to feed them. Luckily Joe Black had some food donated, so we can help him with that, but the real problem is that there is no organization set up in our county that has the right to take an abused or abandoned animal off someone's property. There is no entity that has the power to prosecute people who abuse animals. The animals in DeKalb County have no group with authority, protecting them in any way,” she continued.
“Then, on March 8, Joe Black was informed that two Siberian Huskies were scheduled to be euthanized at noon as per ordered by the Alexandria Police chief.
“The city of Alexandria had been dealing with the irresponsible owners of these two beautiful dogs for over a month. The owners failed to keep their animals where they belonged. They were damaging property and there were many complaints from residents of Alexandria.
“The city tried to give the owners the benefit of the doubt and kept returning the dogs, along with citations and fines that were never paid and basically ignored.
“The city mayor has an agreement with Joe Black Effort for us to take their stray animals, but the police chief wasn't aware of it, and ordered them killed.
“The mama dog is about 150 lbs. and has done some serious damage to the holding kennels that Alexandria uses. When separated from her baby she chewed through an iron fence,” Stufano continued.
She said that a county-wide organization to deal with the problem would help with the situation.
“If we had a county-wide coalition with the authority to address these situations, this and a lot of other similar ones wouldn't end in death for the animal. In this case, irresponsible owners and city damage equals euthanization. Fortunately, instead of going to their death, one last-ditch effort was made by an Alexandria city employee and the dogs were brought to Joe Black instead. They were adopted that same day and left together to their new forever home.
“The mayor of Alexandria didn't know anything about it, and the police chief didn't know we had an agreement with Alexandria. It was no one's fault, but the dogs would have been dead nonetheless,” she said.
“That is why we want to start the process of creating the Dekalb Coalition for the Humane Treatment of animals. We want the community to see what is happening and why it is so important that there is an organization with the power and authority to remove animals that are being neglected, abused or abandoned.
“The coalition needs to be able to create laws for our county making the animal owners accountable with fines and/or jail time. The coalition will also be the organization that will create a ‘no-kill’ rescue shelter, so we have a real location for our lost animals to go and be cared for and re-homed,” she concluded.