Animal shelter for Magoffin

SALYERSVILLE – After years of having to contract out animal shelter services for the county, Magoffin County will soon have an animal shelter for the community.

In a process that has taken two years of research and planning, Magoffin County Judge/Executive Matt Wireman announced this month that his office was able to free up some funding in the general fund, giving them enough to invest in adding an animal shelter next to the recycling center.

“For a relatively low investment, we’ll be able to get out from under the $8,000 annual contract we currently are paying to another county, where we still have to pay per animal and are heavily limited on how many animals we can bring and when we can drop them off, and we’ll have our own enclosed climatized 14’ X 80’ building,” Wireman explained.

He said they will be pouring a 5” concrete pad, installing proper drainage, have heating and cooling, a water heater, proper storage for animal medications and equipment, and abide by all the state and federal regulations.

The new shelter will have room to house 13 dogs, with additional outside kennels for overflow, four to eight cats, and have puppy, kitten and quarantine sections, as required by law.

Wireman said his office has been networking with other animal shelters, humane societies and rescues, for advice and additional resources, noting that a man in Bath County runs an animal rescue and has been taking dogs when he can and adopting them out to people all across the eastern section of the country.

“This kind of networking will help us to find homes for these animals, cutting down the time we will have to house them, and increasing the number of animals we can help,” Wireman said.

He said they have been fortunate finding people in the community that will adopt many of the stray cats, noting that there are fewer resources and rescues for cats.

“We’ll be going through this the right way, working with vets for spaying and neutering, and we hope to be able to start the adoption process as soon as we can,” Wireman said.

Within the next year, Wireman said he hopes to be able to get a local humane society together, noting that he has had more than 20 people contact him about being interested in helping.

Wireman estimates the total project will cost approximately $25,000 and said they were able to free up some funding in the general fund by being reimbursed for some salaries with CARES Act funding.

With these plans already in motion, Wireman said the fiscal court will be letting the contract expire with the Lawrence County Humane Society.

As set by law, he said they will abide by the five-day stray hold, then they will be able to adopt out the animals or send them to rescues to be adopted.

Right now, the judge’s office is taking donations of supplies, particularly for blankets and towels. People who would like to schedule a donation, either of supplies or monetary donations (tax-deductible), or to volunteer, can call the Magoffin County Judge/Executive’s office at 606-349-2313.