Concerned citizens and rescues have been asking for positive changes at the Franklin County Animal Shelter since 2019.  We have had very little success and a recent procedural change indicates that we are starting to slip backwards on the small previous successes. We need your help and, more importantly, the animals need your help!

·         If you have ever been prevented from walking through the shelter to see the adoptable animals, this petition is for you.

·         If you are unable to visit/adopt due to the limited hours of operation, this petition is for you.

·         If your phone calls and emails go unanswered, this petition is for you.

·         If you have offered to volunteer, but have been turned away, this petition is for you.

If your reports of animal abuse, neglect or abandonment have gone unanswered or unresolved, this petition is for you. 

Please sign this petition and let the Franklin County Commissioners know we want and expect more for the animals in the Franklin County animal shelter. Specifically, we want:

·         A new Animal Services Director that embraces accountability, transparency and accessibility in the performance of their County duties

·         Opening the shelter up to allow the public and rescues to directly visit/see the animals

·         Longer adoption hours or hours that better serve working citizens   

·         A vibrant, active volunteer program

·         A strong social media presence, including Facebook albums

·         Timely response and communication with the public and rescues

Why do we need these changes?

The animals in the Franklin County animal shelter have all the odds stacked against them for making it out alive.  Why?  The current Animal Services Director continues to implement policies and procedures that minimize accessibility and visibility for the shelter animals, and the animals are paying the price.   And now there is a serious conflict of interest with the shelter director's mother being a seated County Commissioner, serving on the leadership body that the shelter falls under. This is a conflict of interest that needs to be remedied.

Adoption hours are limited to noon to 3 PM, Monday through Saturday.  That's only 3 short hours each day, and except for Saturday, it's a window of time where most people are at work.    To make it worse, the Animal Services Director has banned the public from walking through the shelter to see the animals in need of adoption or rescue.  Instead, you are required to sign in and wait in line to meet the animals in the lobby, one person at a time, in that small 3-hour window.    More recently, the Animal Services Director stopped populating Facebook photo albums with the "stray hold" animals, "rescue only" animals, and "available" animals, eliminating a critical and timely networking platform for citizens and rescues to tag, share and communicate for the sake of animals in the shelter.  (We highly suspect this was done to prevent the public from tracking the movement of the animals in the shelter system and avoid accountability for needless euthanasia.)  The Animal Services Director is pushing a static website to list the animals, but there is no active communication available and it’s unclear how soon after they enter the shelter that the animals are populated on the website.  The public is told to call or email about the animals, yet the shelter often does not answer the phone or return emails. How does this help the animals? How many animals will die because of these policies?

Many rescues will not pull from this shelter because they are not rescue friendly. For those that do pull, communication is minimal.  There is no rescue email distribution group, and the rescue partners page on Facebook and the FCAS Dog Rescue Partners chat thread on Facebook Messenger are barely active. When we ask for information and videos about the animals, we are consistently told they don't have enough staffing to get us timely information, yet the shelter director continues to stiff-arm public requests for resurrection of a shelter volunteer program.  We have been asking for a volunteer program since 2019.  Again, how many more animals will die because of this apathy?

Euthanasia rates across the country are on the rise due to several driving factors like inflation, housing policies unfriendly to pets, and a lack of spay/neuter services.  Other shelters are trying to temper this effect by stepping up their game and looking for new ways to connect with adopters and rescues.  Franklin County is taking more steps to restrict access to the animals rather than open up to new ideas.  How are the animals expected to survive? 

It is time to demand a new Animal Services Director, one that is willing to work openly, honestly, and fairly with their community and all their partners, equally.  A director that is willing to be open to new ideas to drive positive changes for the good of the animals and to strive for the ABSOLUTE LOWEST euthanasia rates possible.

From 2019:  https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/former-employee-longtime-volunteer-speak-out-about-conditions-at-franklin-county-animal-shelter/?fbclid=IwAR2TRO2XenoH48Azaam63gvZ_ECArFfepmLcjcCqFfkA_QAh5twgHGlO3yo