Councilman pleased with progress at Horry animal shelter

Horry County councilman Al Allen met with two members of the Horry County Police Department assigned to run the county’s animal shelter during the 30 day take-over of the shelter from the Horry County Humane Society.

County Public Safety Director, Paul Whitten, assigned HCPD sergeant Gary Gause to run the shelter during the take over and assigned HCPD officer Kelly Bonome to act as the shelter’s director of operations.

Since the county stepped in Jan. 9, the shelter’s kennel floors were sealed, the cracks in walls repaired, and the kennel walls are painted.

There are now animal intake procedures in place to ensure potentially sick or unvaccinated animals are not mixed in with the shelter’s general population, according to Gause.

The new policy implemented by Gause requires all animals to stay outside the facility until each incoming animal undergoes a medical evaluation and is vaccinated.

The vaccinations given to all new animals now include distemper shots, among others.

These steps were already paid for by county tax payers in a $536,000-plus payment to the HCHS in July, according to the county contract with the HCHS to run the shelter.

Allen said he’s working on offering up a new plan for the shelter and researching options to present to council at the Feb. 23 Public Safety Committee meeting in Conway, but Allen declined to disclose the details of his plan before consulting with council members. 

At the last committee meeting in January, council called for a full investigation into the HCHS finances over the past three and one half years.

The results of the audit are due by the Feb. 23 meeting, but could take the county auditor longer to work through the hundreds of documents, Allen said.

Monday, the shelter’s veterinarian told News13 she planned to stop her work at the shelter unless the HCHS board stepped down.

Dr. Stephanie Fotorny, who also works as a full time veterinarian at a private practice, said she would not continue working under the current HCHS board of directors because of the board’s denial and handling of the distemper outbreak that closed the shelter for a month on Dec. 8, 2008.

The shelter closed more than two weeks after a case of distemper was confirmed in a dog adopted from the county shelter.

During the two weeks, shelter officials continued adopting dogs to families, many of which were returned with distemper symptoms, and euthanized.

Fotorny said she and other vets told shelter officials in early November to close the shelter after several dogs started showing sign of distemper.

Former shelter executive director Renee Macklen closed the shelter on Nov. 3.

On Nov. 4, HCHS vice president Suzer Sachs went to the shelter and found it closed to the public because of concerns over the deadly and highly contagious distemper virus.

Sachs ordered the shelter reopened, according to shelter officials.

The shelter was re-opened and dogs continued to be adopted out, according to shelter documents obtained by News13.

Macklen was fired by the board on Dec. 17.

Since then, HCHS president Kate Philips said several times that the board didn’t know about the distemper outbreak until Dec. 5 when board member Sandi Brown emailed the board notifying each member of the issue.

Philips told News13 she still didn’t know about the closing or the issue until days after the shelter closed.

In emails made public at the board’s Feb. 2 meeting, Philips said the communications between board members showed the group knew nothing of the outbreak, but in an email dated Nov. 4, to Macklen, Philips writes, “Hope it is not distemper. Lord help us.”

The board is currently on the hunt for a new executive director and Philips said nearly 300 applications came in for the position.

The board has narrowed the search to three finalists, but no date is set for the HCHS Hiring Committee to announce the hiring.

Allen said he’ll present his solutions to council at the Feb. 23 meeting.

Allen said part of the new plan the county is working on will require the next organization to be held financially accountable to the county and the new deal will require direct reporting to the county.

Allen would not say if the county has decided on terminating the contract with the HCHS.