The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 03:00 PM
Pets Without Parents Closes In Sevier County, Future Unknown
Pets Without Parents did announce the shelter would be holding an adoption event at the PetSmart on Winfield Dunn Parkway in Sevierville beginning at 4 p.m. Monday.
A worker told local news outlets Monday said she was one of only a few volunteers who was still reporting to the shelter after the facility received criticism following the euthanasia of 42 cats in mid-April. Shelter officials said they had "too many cats" due to taking in as many as they could to meet county and city contracts. Board members admitted the shelter was well over its 150 animal capacity.
After the news of the euthanasia was released, other volunteers and previous workers told media the conditions at the shelter did not meet standards of cleanliness and sanitation.
"The biggest concerns for I and the staff were the conditions the animals were in, and the environment itself just wasn't suitable," former shelter director Daniel Langston said to local news.
However, president of the shelter Lory Souders said that rumors of unsanitary conditions were not factual.
"We get in there, we clean all their kennels, we disinfect them, we give them all fresh water," she said.
Souders also said the intake facility at the shelter is disinfected twice a day. Plans were previously made to finish construction on an improved intake center by late April.
Pets Without Parents became the only intake shelter and official animal control center for Sevierville after a contract with the Sevier County Humane Society was ended in June 2017.
Meanwhile, the Sevier County Humane Society has taken to social media to prevent the county's use of "eminent domain," which would mean all Sevier County animal control contract duties would fall back on the shelter, though local governments would not be required to give the compensation the shelter previously requested. The humane society said it previously submitted proposals to local governments in Sevier County that would place SCHS as the main animal shelter and services provider in the county. As part of that proposed contract, SCHS would take care of these duties for up to 18 months, and for a budgeted cost to governments on a month-to-month or quarterly basis.
However, SCHS said that proposal was rejected by local government officials.