Between the lines: Horn's activism lives on

Love of animals drives bequest to local shelters

Lib Horn's passion for animals lives on.

The animal activist, who was a former director of Fayetteville's animal shelter, died last month but left bequests to both the Fayetteville shelter and to the Washington County shelter.

The exact amounts won't be clear until the assets included are tallied and transferred; but both the City Council and county Quorum Court have formally authorized the transfers into their respective budgets.

City Attorney Kit Williams has said the city could receive $50,000 or more. And County Attorney Steve Zega anticipates a comparable amount for the county shelter.

Whatever the amounts, the bequests are welcome and it is not at all surprising that Horn would remember the shelters in her will.

Neither shelter will have any difficulty finding use for the gifts, which Horn certainly knew.

She remained involved with both well past her retirement and understood as well as anyone the challenges for any shelter.

At the city shelter, they're considering using Lib's gift toward a free-roaming cat room. Cats are caged now, as comfortably as the shelter can make it, but the new room would let them roam and interact in more space.

The three-year-old county shelter, which has had well-publicized problems just keeping its operation going, will have more money for necessities in a tight-budget time for the county government.

That's all thanks to this one woman, who came to Fayetteville in the 1980s and held the shelter job from late 1987 until early 2001. She spent her years there making that shelter a state-of-the-art facility. And she helped to create and build the Washington County shelter when city shelters could no longer handle all the animals being brought in from rural areas.

Fittingly, less than a month after her death, the Fayetteville City Council voted unanimously to rename the Fayetteville shelter for Lib Horn, whose reputation as a lover and protector of animals stretched far beyond the city and state.

For example, she was a strong voice in making aggravated animal cruelty a felony in Arkansas. In 2005, Horn described that effort as her last major goal in life. The law passed in 2009. The ever-busy Horn just kept finding other ways to help abused and neglected animals.

She was born Olivia Ann Horn in Black Rock (Lawrence County), the youngest of nine children, but she preferred being called "Lib" and that's the name on the city shelter: the Lib Horn Animal Shelter.

In the resolution renaming it, Fayetteville City Council cited the transition of ownership to the city from the Humane Society of the Ozarks and many improvements to the shelter under her leadership.

As director, she was involved in creating the shelter's clinic, hiring the city's first staff veterinarian and promoting low-cost animal spay and neuter programs the city makes available to Fayetteville pet owners.

After Hurricane Katrina, she even led a volunteer shelter for animals rescued from New Orleans. She and others saw to it that every rescued animal was either returned to its original owner or adopted by a new one.

One last "whereas" in the city's resolution noted that "Lib dedicated her life to being a tireless protector of and advocate for the unwanted, mistreated and tortured animals of the world and will always be remembered for her compassion to both animals and people."

And, now, with these bequests, she is extending her more than 30 years of public service.

Commentary on 12/27/2015

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