FAYETTEVILLE — An annual event that provides inexpensive microchip implants and vaccinations for dogs and cats will continue despite the dissolution of the group that created the program, the Washington County judge said.
The Pet Wellness Expo provides hundreds of pet owners $5 microchip implants, $5 vaccinations and $5 booster shots for dogs and cats every fall at the Sheriff’s Office.
Members of the county’s Animal Concerns Advisory Board started the event five years ago. The board helped County Judge Marilyn Edwards research, plan and convince the Quorum Court to pay to build the county’s animal shelter.
The board decided last week not to formally meet unless the judge needs the board again.
At A Glance
Creation Of The Animal Concerns Advisory Board
• June 1995 — Quorum Court members and Humane Society of the Ozarks meet to discuss formation of a task force to research animal related issues in Washington County.
• July 1995 — Quorum Court Operations Committee passes resolution to form an Animal Concerns Task Force.
• February 1996 — Sheriff Kenneth McKee reported packs of dogs have been slaughtering cattle.
• March 1996 — Visiting director of Humane Society of Missouri tells task force members, “I hope you don’t have to wait until something else drastic happens before you move.”
• May 1996 — Four-year-old child from Wheeler is killed by a pack of dogs. A stray dog bites a 2-year-old from Winslow in the face.
• June 1996 — Task force recommends building an animal shelter, hiring an animal control officer and establishing Animal Concerns Advisory Board.
• July 1996 — Quorum Court creates the advisory board.
• October 1996 — Advisory board recommends temporary contract with Fayetteville Animal Shelter to take animals found outside city limits.
• October 1997 — County hires its first animal control officer.
• September 2012 — County opens Washington County Lester C. Howick Animal Shelter.
Source: Staff Report
“Now that the animal shelter is built and staffed, I really don’t have much for them to do,” Edwards said. “They were tremendous help to the county, and I very much appreciate that.”
An animal concerns task force in the mid-1990s suggested the need for an advisory board, an animal shelter and animal control officers. The recommendations happened after a child died from a dog attack in Wheeler and another child was seriously injured from a dog attack in Winslow, both in May 1996.
The Quorum Court and County Judge Charles Johnson created the advisory board in July 1996 and hired the first county animal control officer by October 1997, according to county documents.
Gerald Kelso and Barbara King have been members of the advisory board since its creation. The board had twice recommended the county build an animal shelter, Kelso said. The first and second attempts were in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to county documents.
The board endorsed a temporary contract in 1996 with the Fayetteville Animal Shelter to take rural animals found outside the city’s borders.
By 2010, Fayetteville officials told the county, and other small cities, the shelter could no longer handle those animals.
“It was after the third recommendation by the advisory board, over this 15-year period roughly, that this shelter was finally built,” Kelso said last week. “That was a major decision of the advisory board way back when but it had never gotten off the ground.”
The shelter cost $2.1 million and opened last year. All animal services, such as the county’s Spay and Neuter Program, will be administered by shelter staff and supervised by Edwards.
King said she’s proud of the work done by the board.
“I guess I have to bow to how we were actually created,” King said. “We were created as an advisory board to serve at the wishes of the county judge and that’s basically all we are.”
Other county advisory boards have disbanded after their initial goals were met, said Justice of the Peace Ann Harbison.
“We had a juvenile justice advisory board for many years,” Harbison said. “Once we had the alternative programs started, we started branching out in other areas that particular county judges, not (Edwards), didn’t like. We were doing things other organizations do, so we disbanded.”
Several members of the board are also members of the Animal League of Washington County, a nonprofit group that does fundraising for the animal shelter. The animal league pays to transport dogs and cats to other states for adoption.
Carmen Nelson, the league’s director and advisory board member, said she will continue to organize the pet expo. Edwards said as long as volunteers handle the expo, the county will support the effort.
The event last year provided 383 canine booster shots, 433 canine rabies vaccinations, 77 feline boosters and 82 feline rabies vaccines. Volunteers also implanted 344 microchips.
Rice grain-sized microchips are commonly placed between an animal’s shoulders. The microchips send a code that can be electronically linked to a pet’s owner.
“We’re happy to continue the low cost services to the public to keep their pets healthy,” Nelson said.