Horry shelter problems stem from facility's design

The Horry County Humane Society’s Board of Directors fired the Horry County animal shelter’s executive director Renee Macklen Wednesday night and met to discuss ways to prevent future outbreaks at the shelter in Conway.

HCHS president Kate Philips told News13 the board made it a priority in June to build a separate intake facility at the shelter in Conway, but were not able to secure funding from the county to build the facility.

A separate intake building would allow animals brought into the shelter awaiting immunization to remain away from other animals housed in the shelter’s existing two kennels.

Since the shelter closed on Dec. 8, nearly two weeks after a case of distemper was found in a dog at the shelter, shelter officials have housed new animals in a maintenance shed on the property.

When the HCHS took over the shelter in July 2006, the county set aside $175,000 to build an off-site adoption facility that would be located in the Surfside Beach area to give more people access to the shelter without driving out to the main facility north of Conway.

Philips said Wednesday night that she told Macklen to have the county give an estimate on the cost of building a separate facility to house new animals coming into the shelter, but Macklen said the county never came out to perform the estimate.

That means the shelter has operated since then without any way to isolate animals awaiting immunizations and vet check ups.

That’s more than likely what led to the distemper outbreak, according to Philips.

Since the shelter closed on Dec. 8 and News13 broke the story of the distemper outbreak at the shelter, dozens of people who adopted animals from the shelter told News13 they were unable to contact director Macklen by phone and in person.

Many people at the meeting Wednesday night told the board they would email and call the shelter and never hear back from staff.

Philips told Macklen to have a shelter employee man the phones at the shelter during business hours, but Macklen told the board that she didn’t have the resources to devote someone to that.

Macklen told the board that the shelter needed more phone lines installed, but since the county owned the facility, the county was the only ones with authority to make the change.

Macklen told the board that the shelter was not longer on the county email server and when the shelter changed servers, many emails were lost, which explained why some emails were never answered, according to Macklen.

The board voted unanimously Wednesday night to terminate Macklen and search for a new director at the shelter.

Part of the plan moving forward at the shelter Philips said was to meet with each employee at the shelter to address problems and to see how to help the shelter operate more efficiently.

That includes improved customer service, according to Philips.

The HCHS board plans to meet Friday at 5 p.m. at the Chapin Memorial Library in Myrtle Beach to look at replacing Macklen and to begin the search for the shelter’s new executive director.