Over $1 million dollars in grant funding has helped the Greenbrier Humane Society keep the county’s animal population under control.
Greenbrier County Humane Society representative Jennifer Runyon presented the annual report to the Greenbrier County Commission on Mar. 8.
“I just want to thank you guys for your support,” said Runyon. “Whether it’s during a pandemic or not a pandemic, being able to accept surrendered animals from citizens of Greenbrier County for whatever reason, moving or hardship, is just a very important service that you all allow us to provide.”
Though the facility runs with financial support from the county, an impressive number of grants that specifically fund spay and neuter programs have brought “over a million dollars [to] this community, paying the vet community to spay and neuter,” Runyon said. “No county money is used for our spay and neuter program,” Runyon said. “You’re trying to reduce the number of unwanted cats and dogs, thus reducing the number of animals rented by residents in Greenbrier County. We spayed and neutered 1,815 dogs and cats last year. That brings a total of 18,707 dogs and cats from 2009 to 2021.”
In addition, a more specific program is dedicated to the homeless cat population.
“The community cat spay or neuter program is still going,” Runyon said. “We’re trying to collaborate with police, municipalities, whatever we can do, to reduce the overall homeless cat population in Greenbrier County.”
Commission President Lowell Rose thanked Runyon for the organization’s efforts.
“We do appreciate all y’all do for the county,” said Rose. “When I first started on the commission, we were in a totally different position, but the spay and neuter program has really brought down the numbers. That’s a good thing.”
This decline has seemingly continued through to this year.
“We have somewhat seen, in the last couple of years, a reduced number of surrendered dogs coming into the facility,” Runyon said. “But we’re also seeing an uptick in the number of dogs coming from James, the animal control officer. Cats remain a steady number from a surrender point of view.”
However, even if this number was zero, the shelter would still receive animals.
“We also have seen an uptick in the number of owner-surrendered animals,” Runyon said. “James [brought in] 133 dogs, an uptick from the 80 in the previous year. We are able to keep the average length of stay down to 14 days or less. There’s occasionally an outlier, but we try to keep that number down.”
Even if this means the facility is full, Runyon noted the humane society does “not euthanize for space,” but also “things haven’t always been that way.”
“Our goal is to save dogs and cats through adoption and rescue programs,” Runyon said. “So 24,890 dogs have been surrendered to the facility from 2009 to 2021. [Of these,] 11,264 dogs have been adopted from the facility from 2009 to 2021. We achieved the eight-year anniversary for not euthanizing animals for space. … We do still euthanize – 578 cats and dogs were euthanized in 2021 because of aggression and sickness.”
Commissioner Tammy Shifflett-Tincher also thanked Runyon for their efforts.
“I would have to give kudos to you all for your work during all of this time,” said Tincher. “[I] recognize that there are other communities that have larger issues than we do [with regard to animals], and have facilities that are not able to take anymore. I appreciate the work among the humane society, and the sheriff’s office working together with our animal control officer.”
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