- Neighbors in Wakulla County are urging county leaders to do more for Animal Services.
- According to data from the shelter, since January 1, 100 animals have been euthanized.
- Watch the video above to hear why neighbors are banding together to bring about change.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Since the start of this year just under 800 animals have been brought into Wakulla County's Animal Services, and a hundred have been euthanized. I’m Kenzie Krueger in Crawfordville breaking down how these numbers and calls are additional funding have groups speaking out.
“I’ve never seen it this bad, I’ve never seen an animal problem the way we have it now.” Teresa Brannan has lived in the county her whole life and is concerned about what’s happening with Animal Services.
“My biggest issue with the shelter is the spacing issue. Our shelter has not grown at all in 20 years. As far as size we still have 18 bays that we could put dogs in. That means if we have 19 dogs somebody’s gotta go.”
One year ago I reported on the overcrowding issue at the shelter, and since then it's been a problem. Watch my report from August of 2023 by clicking play below.
According to data from the shelter, since January 1, a hundred animals have been euthanized. Last year, 59 were euthanized.
Teresa Brannon: “It makes me mad. It makes me seriously angry to know that those are lives that had been lost because people are bringing their dogs to Wakulla County and dropping them off because shelters elsewhere won’t take them.”
At this time, 12 percent of animals at the shelter have been euthanized and 88 percent have been adopted or rescued.
Karen Share: “That’s what really irritates me. There’s no reason to kill dogs.”
I interviewed Karen Share last year while she was volunteering at the shelter. She quit this month due to lack of resources and euthanized animals.
“Nothings been done and it just pisses me off to know when they’re sitting on money and killing dogs.”
She’s talking about $35,000 that was approved by the Wakulla County Board of Commissioners for improvements to the building. See my report on that development by clicking play below.
It’s part of this fiscal year’s one cent sales tax capital spending plan but the shelter hasn't gotten that money for improvements. At Tuesday’s BOCC meeting, several neighbors came to express their concerns about the shelter, including Share. “Where is that money all I heard Tuesday night was a bunch of blah blah blah. We’re going to have a meeting and we’re going to plan to spend it.”
I've been reaching out to the county for months to address Wakulla Animals Services concerns. They sent me a statement on Thursday
They wrote, "Wakulla County is actively planning to increase the capacity of our Animal Services Department in the 2024/25 Fiscal Year Budget by renovating an underutilized building on site for additional space and office use, enhancing our service to animals and citizens."
Groups are now left to plan fundraisers in an effort to advocate for the shelter.
Brannan says they believe Animal Services staff have done everything they can. “But it’s not enough we have to get involved if we don’t get involved and the County Commission and County Administrator don’t get involved, nothings gonna ever change.”
I’ve reached out to the county several times over the past few months to try and interview employees at the shelter and I’ve been denied.
Here are some additional details regarding the Animal Services Department Budget from Wakulla County:
• FY 23/24 Budget (10/1/23-9/30/24): $514,202.00
• FY 24/25 Proposed Budget (10/1/24-9/30/25): $618,764.00
