DeKalb Animal Shelter Reaches Agreement With County, City; Hires New Employee

The DeKalb County Animal Shelter has reached a compromise with the county and the city of Smithville.

Director Emmaly Bennett said that the shelter will now function as its own entity, operating on the contributions of both the county and the city. After meeting with the county last week, Bennett said that the county will now contribute some $39,000 for an additional employee for the shelter.

“My greatest need was employees,” Bennett said. “So now I’ll get two more employees and we can get back to running like we were normally. Get these animals moved out of here, host adoption events, host fundraisers. We can get back to normal.”

Bennett said that the shelter has already filled its assistant director position, and is now looking for an additional employee to assist with animal control calls. She said that now that the day-to-day operations, policies, and procedures fall under the DeKalb Animal Coalition.

Bennett said that issues arose when the shelter brought up they needed more assistance from the county for its services. She said that 67 percent of the animals in the shelter came from outside city limits but inside county lines, and DeKalb contributed no money to the shelter.

“We’ve been open since 2017 and each year our numbers rise in intakes,” Bennett said. “That means strays, owner surrenders or animal control from the county. We were up to 67 percent of our animals coming from the county obviously because it’s bigger. And we need help. The city puts in $100,000 a year to the shelter and the county was putting in nothing. So it was time for them to put in a fair share, and $39,000 is not a fair share it’s actually a little bit under, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

Bennett said that with the issues settled, she looks forward to continuing to aid the people of Smithville and DeKalb County. She said that if anyone would like to contribute, they accept donations to aid in their work.