Video: What To Do If You Save A Stray And Don’t Have An Animal Shelter Where You Live

MONROE COUNTY AND CHICKASAW COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – We’ve all been driving down the road and seen a stray dog or cat.

A natural instinct for many is to rescue the pup or kitten, but not every county has an animal shelter.

The lack of animal shelters is an issue in many counties, and areas that have them are housing animals from other counties.

The Amory Humane Society houses 60 to 70 animals, and half of them are from surrounding counties.

“There are countless numbers. I mean, you can’t even imagine the animals that come in, and people are always asking us why we charge a surrender fee,” says Amory Humane Society employee, Tonya Scranton.

If the shelter doesn’t have that fee, it would be hard to run this shelter.

“We are a 501c3. We work on donations only, and we ask that people donate $50 dollars so we can provide vaccines and medications for animals that are coming in,” says Scranton.

The Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Department responds to three to four animal calls a week, and there isn’t a county shelter.

“Every call is different and especially when it comes to animals, and we try to help every which way we can; whether it’s contacting the humane society to come get a neglected or abused animal, or if a person will flat out tell us, ‘look, I don’t have the money to take care of it’, we’ll try to find them a home,” says
Chickasaw County Deputy, Bo Yeatman.

Most people call when they see an animal that needs help.

“As far as stray dogs, or people calling because because they’re concerned about dogs, and going out and checking on them, or you know, as far as going to calls where an animal has been hit in the roadway, and they’re needing to be moved or taken care of,” says Yeatman.

Yeatman says there are laws on the books to protect animals.

“It’s just like any other crime. I mean, if you see something it’s better to call us, notify us you know, especially animals. If you feel like you’re to the point where you can take that animal in and take care of it, at least until you find another home, that would be great,” says Yeatman.

The Amory Humane Society also uses the $50 dollar surrender fee to help take animals to other locations, if they can’t be adopted in Mississippi.

The Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Department tells us county supervisors are in the progress of trying to get a shelter for the area.