Friends Animal Shelter of Cocke County planning to stop operating as county shelter

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The Friends Animal Shelter of Cocke County representatives announced on June 29, that they no longer plan to operate as the county’s animal shelter, citing massive over-occupation.

Representatives made the announcement on Facebook, saying the shelter was seeing an average of 94 animals a month- almost twice what it is equipped to handle.

“We did everything humanly possible to provide this service and the number of animals that needed to be taken into the shelter has overwhelmed our facility, staff, and volunteers,” the announcement said.

Friends Animal Shelter representatives also said that they had received inquiries from county commissioners asking why they were refusing animals, a choice they had made because Friends is a no-kill shelter. “We will not euthanize a healthy animal to make room for another animal to be euthanized later,” representatives said.

WVLT News spoke to Sara Kenney, a board member and vice president at the shelter about the decision.

“We made the decision at that time that there were two things happening,” Kenney said. “One-there was no increase in money to help us fund this. Because what they give us is literally less than half of what it costs to run the shelter. And the second thing that was happening was there was more and more talking about becoming a kill shelter.”

The overpopulation got so bad, Kenney said, some employees have had to take animals home to care for them.

“Working with the county we’ve been at capacity, which has been a frustration for them and a frustration for us too,” she said. “We’ve had staff actually take animals home because we didn’t have a spot for them.”

Wednesday last week, the shelter’s board of directors delivered a letter to Cocke County Mayor Crystal Ottinger, letting her know the shelter plans to end its contract as the county’s official shelter after a one-month extension to “give them time to come up with a plan to replace our services.”

June 29, 2022
Honorable Crystal Ottinger
Cocke County Mayor
360 East Main Street
Newport, Tennessee 37821
Hand Delivered & via email
Dear Mayor Ottinger:
As you are aware, our contract to provide services in support of the county’s animal control program expires on June 30th, 2022. Over the past two fiscal years, the county’s animal control officer and residents have tendered more than 2,300 animals to our facility. Our kennels are consistently occupied at maximum capacity.
Our mission is to care for animals. We are committed to remaining a no-kill organization. By definition, that means we will not euthanize animals to make space for more animals to be euthanized. In striving to fulfill our contract as the county’s animal shelter, we have exhausted our foster program, overburdened our volunteers and found that area shelters and rescues are usually unable to accept any meaningful number of our animals for transfer.
Lately and more frequently, we have had to tell residents that our facility was full to capacity and we were unable to take animals that they wanted to surrender. It’s a daily struggle working with the county’s animal control officer to ensure space will be available. We’ve heard from some, including discussions with the CLB, that a no-kill policy will not meet the requirements of our county’s animal control mission. As noted above, we will never end our commitment to being a no-kill animal welfare organization. It is clear that the paths to accomplishing each of our missions are divergent and irreconcilable. Moreover, even if our facility were to somehow be expanded to double or triple its capacity (a physical and fiscal impossibility), the current condition of our economy and the rate of inflation will more than likely cause our organization to become insolvent by the end of the next fiscal year.
Accordingly, we find that it is not be possible for us, in good faith, to renew a contract to continue to provide services as the county’s animal shelter and remain a no-kill organization. We will continue as a charitable nonprofit solely dedicated to animal welfare in our community. In the future we will work closely with the county’s animal shelter.
Pursuant to the terms of our current services contract, we are willing to continue through the month of July under the contract provisions to afford the county an opportunity to transition to another solution to its animal control responsibilities.
Please advise us whether the county would like us to continue providing the contractual services through July 31st at your earliest convenience so we can make appropriate operational decisions.
Sincerely,
Friends of the Animal Shelter
Board of Directors
Friends Animal Shelter of Cocke County

Going forward, shelter representatives said they plan to continue operating as a nonprofit organization, caring for the animals that they can. They also said they plan to work closely with the county’s new shelter in the future, and asked the community to help with their funding.

Shelter officials said they plan to launch a membership program soon, along with a fundraising campaign. While that is being set up, the shelter is taking donations through this link.

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