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Dear Editor:
In her Sept. 11 letter to the editor, Cari McIntyre, secretary of the Hancock County Animal Shelter, stated: “The last meeting of the Hancock County Commission left no doubt that management of the animal shelter will never be reinstated to the Hancock County Animal Shelter Foundation.”
Why, then, does she keep coming to commission meetings? Why does the same small group of foundation supporters attend every meeting to berate, accuse and insult the commissioners?
Speaking at the Sept. 14 commission meeting, I asked foundation supporters rhetorically “Why are you still here?” One of them called out, “Why are you?”
The obvious answers to those questions are that the foundation hasn’t really given up on reclaiming control of the animal shelter, and so as long as they keep coming, I’ll keep coming to support the commission.
Foundation supporter Rudy Rosnick, in a Sept. 11 letter, accused commissioners of “a level of arrogance and disrespect for the public that is beyond description.” Yet at every meeting, I’ve seen little but rudeness, arrogance and disrespect toward the commissioners from foundation officers and supporters. There has been no acceptance of any responsibility whatsoever on their part for losing the shelter contract. They accuse commissioners of malfeasance, hidden agendas, lies and egomania … then in the next breath call upon them to be big about it all and compromise their principles, because of course foundation people can never, never, never compromise theirs.
They say they will compromise on just one thing, the waiting list issue. But, how can you compromise on something you maintain is not really a problem? Ms. McIntyre has repeatedly said the foundation received only one “documented” complaint from a citizen about being put on a waiting list. According to her, everyone else was happy to take that stray dog or cat back home and wait for a phone call saying now there is space. Foundation officers and board members had to have been willfully deaf not to hear complaints because I have little contact with the shelter (other than living nearby) yet I’ve heard plenty, and I know commissioners have, too.
When you don’t believe in euthanizing pet animals for any reason except relief of incurable pain and suffering (no-kill and low-kill shelters), you get overcrowding. Overcrowding leads to waiting lists, people turned away from shelters, animals turned loose, unadoptable animals shuffled endlessly among volunteers, a rise in animal hoarding, and more, not less, animal suffering. That’s all according to PETA, not me.
By all accounts, including those of several foundation supporters who have visited the facility, the county shelter is operating very well, and at less than half the cost as under the foundation, which was a hefty $390,000 last year.
The foundation, according to its public statements, since losing the shelter contract July 1 has been successfully offering adoption, spay/neuter programs and other services in the community, operating as it wishes with its own funds and volunteers.
It should continue to go its own way and give up the idea of getting back the county shelter.
Fred Miller
New Manchester