New Jackson Domestic Animal Committee To Hold First Meeting

The Jackson County Domestic Animals Committee will have its first ever meeting Tuesday.

Coordinator Karen Fitzmaurice said members will be meeting with Gainesboro Mayor Lloyd Williams and Commissioner Don Chinoy to discuss animal services.

“One of our needs is to try to have a one-stop website, so that it’s easier to find lost and found animals,” Fitzmaurice said. “And then, another need is is because we don’t have an animal shelter, and they are very expensive to build, we might be able to do smaller shelters.”

Without city or county assistance, Fitzmaurice said funding the means to offer animal services is difficult. Fitzmaurice said often times, operations are independently funded.

“I think there is some solutions that we can start with and to try and relieve the financial burden of many in the county that are the ones putting money out of their own pockets because they don’t have a system,” Fitzmaurice said.

Fitzmaurice said while the committee is just getting started, the overall goal is to bring awareness to the issues. Fitzmuarice said meeting with local officials could be the first step to finding a solution for the lack of animal services.

“That’s the reason we would like to meet and get a bunch of different ideas from people around the area to try to see how we can resolve our costs but to try to keep the cost down,” Fitzmaurice said.

The meeting begins at 5:30 at Gainesboro city hall.