The real story: The Valley River Humane Society (VRHS) has struggled for many years to reconcile its mission of rescuing animals with being an animal sheltering facility for local county governments. It is financially and emotionally impossible to do both without more supporters, volunteers, adopters and donors. If you would please take time to read the whole story you will know the real story of VRHS current situation. This attempt to be all things to all people and animals has created a lot of tension and distress over time. Many people over time have done their best to make it work for the benefit of the animals in the region. VRHS has struggled financially for many years to especially to meet its broad range of goals. The facility’s maintenance and the staffs’ training and pay were sacrificed for the welfare of the animals. A little over a year ago many of the folks involved with the VRHS realized that if the course of VRHS did not change the organization would not exit. Even though these folks did not completely agree on the best way to resolve the problems with VRHS, they have worked to improve VRHS and the welfare of the animals it cared for. Even in light of the organizations detractors the shelter went through major improvements. About the same time VRHS was working on making changes for the better, the State of North Carolina AWS came and noted the same inadequacies that had accumulated over time at the facility. The management and leadership had also went through some changes all the while working to care for the animals and find creative ways to get the pets new homes. Progress has been steady but very, very very slow. Then in August of 2014 some of the problems that VRHS was trying to overcome became magnified. With limited resources and inconsistent direction the management became overwhelmed. The staffing of the shelter, which had already been understaffed, had several circumstances in which staff had to quit their employment. Some employees left by choice but not the majority. In addition, during the months of August and September, VRHS had some of the largest number of intakes in the history of VRHS, leading to a severe overcrowding of the shelter. With a sudden shortage in staff and a severe overpopulation of animals all other improvement projections being done came to a halt. Needless to say it was practically impossible for four employees to care for ~140 animals properly. This condition existed easily for a couple weeks while staff were being replaced and animals were getting adopted and removed from the shelter. When the State inspector came in September, he found few employees, overcrowded conditions and projects not completed, in a shelter which had passed inspection in August; this was intolerable to him. As it should be. The conditions at the shelter appeared dramatically worse and requested projects had not been done. In fact the inspector found the conditions so poor that day that VRHS recently has received a “cease and desist order”, without a re-inspection. ncagr.gov/vet/aws/Inspections/Cheroke This means the shelter could close permanently in 30 days. The Board of Valley River Humane Society has sent a letter to contest this order. As contrary to the rumors and the blogs of the detractors of VRHS: 1) The shelter is not suffering from overcrowding of animals at this time, 2) The staffing of the shelter is nearly back to 100% of required staff, 3) All the animals are getting the care and attention they need, 4) The few sick animals that are present are getting the veterinary care needed, 5)The required projects the inspectors required completed are either done or have a scheduled date to be completed. So please come by the shelter when it’s open during the week and see for yourself the condition of the facility. You will find animals clean and well cared for. Come and volunteer or even take time to adopt a cat or dog. Once you have seen the shelter and spoke with the staff yourself please contact NCDA&CS, Animal Welfare Section and let them know they need to come see Valley River Humane Society’s Shelter because there is no reason for it to be closed.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 05:21:11 +0000
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