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Dog warden seeing more dogs, busy |
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Thursday, 05 November 2009 |
By MIKE BURKHOLDER
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — With 300 dogs already passing through his door, the Auglaize County dog warden says officers continue to remain busy.
“The first year we took in 500 dogs,” Dog Warden Russ Bailey said. “Since January, we are probably well over 300. It has been a lot of dogs but we are lucky we have a lot of volunteers.”
Volunteers are vital to operations at the county kennel — which is located at Neil Armstrong Airport in New Knoxville, Bailey said. The facility can house 12 dogs at a time and additional animals are brought to the Allen County Dog Warden.
“I think a lot of people are under the impression that we automatically put them down,” Bailey said. “That’s not the case. We have been doing this since last July and the Allen County dog warden has been more than helpful. When we get full, all I do is call them and they take them in. They have a lot more avenues to get dogs adopted. It’s a tremendous help and we couldn’t do it without them.”
Bailey said in recent months he has noticed an increase in dogs that appear to have been pets coming into the kennel. While sad, Bailey acknowledged it does make his job of adopting animals easier.
“We are getting dogs that are very clean, housebroken but the owners aren’t calling,” Bailey said. “I really think it’s due to the economy. The quality of dogs are up right now and in a way it’s sad that they aren’t going back to their owners but they are a lot easier to adopt.”
The department, which is separate from the Auglaize County Humane Society in Wapakoneta, is responsible for dogs across the entire county — except in Wapakoneta. The Humane Society is responsible for taking dogs within the city limits of Wapakoneta.
“I think people don’t realize if you don’t live in Wapakoneta, we take the dogs running loose,” Bailey said.
Bailey said the department relies on county dog tag fees, donations and volunteers to operate.
The adoption fee is $20, which Bailey said is reasonable among other entities in the region.
“We aren’t here to make money,” Bailey said.
Bailey praised the volunteers and donors who have helped keep the department afloat since its started.
Volunteers often come in to help clean the kennels, walk the dogs and put the animals on various adoption Web sites.
“Mark and Shelly Fledderjohann gets the pets on Pet Finder and we have had a lot of success adopting dogs out,” Bailey said. “Outside donations have helped a lot. They have been great in getting us leashes.”
In the future, Bailey said he would like to have a larger facility that could accommodate more dogs. By starting with an account balance of zero almost two years ago, Bailey said plans are slowly beginning to evolve.
“We are completely funded on nothing but dog tags, fines and donations,” Bailey said. “We are starting at zero. We looked at existing buildings and building new. I don’t think anything is etched in stone. Even though we aren’t in a new building, we are still operating the best we can and still do things for the community.”
Anyone who wants to volunteer or donate, can contact Bailey via the county’s Web site at auglaizecounty.org and click on the Dog Warden link. Photographs of pets available for adoption also appears on the site.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 06 November 2009 )
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