The Sunflower County Humane Society plans to make good on its promise to disassociate itself from the City of Indianola and the Hough-Dement Animal Shelter. Board President Rebecca Potter told The Enterprise-Tocsin this week that the Humane Society is done with the city and will no longer support operations at the shelter. “The Sunflower County Humane Society is severing ties with the city,” Potter said. “We notified the city during a public board meeting back in October that we were considering this option for a number of reasons. We feel that the board has not and has no ntention of listening to the concerns of the Humane Society in the matters of shelter personnel, standards of care for animals or the treatment of Humane Society-donated items.” Potter told The E-T that the relationship between the city and the society had always been strained, but tensions had been at an all-time high since early October when the city board voted during a special called meeting to suspend former shelter director Rebecca Horne without pay. Horne eventually resigned, and the board voted last week to hire a new director, Katherine Chudy. Chudy came recommended by the Humane Society, but Potter said that there were other factors at play when it came to the nonprofit’s decision to distance itself from the city and the shelter. Shortly after Horne’s suspension, Potter said that she witnessed several dogs, some of which had been earmarked for transport by the Northbound Rescue Society, being loaded into a truck. She said that the dogs were later unloaded when she pressed the shelter staff about where the dogs were going to be taken. “I still have not received an explanation as to where the dogs were bound,” Potter said. Potter said that about $3,000 worth of dog beds that had been donated to the shelter by the Humane Society were trashed, along with other decorative items that had been inside of the shelter. Those items still have not been replaced by the city, despite promises that they would be, Potter said. Potter said that shelter staff had long discarded a set of standards for the ethical treatment of the animals, a code that had been adopted years ago by the board of aldermen. The city also announced in October plans to clamp down on out-of-county travel in the shelter’s vehicles. Potter said that it had been common practice for area shelters to aid one another in the transport of animals, particularly when it came to taking them for spaying and neutering at Mississippi State University. The city does own the building that houses the shelter, and it controls the day-to-day operations there, including paying the salaries for the director and staff. That being said, the Humane Society’s withdrawal is no small matter. Since 2020, the Humane Society had spent over $75,000 in veterinarian bills alone at the shelter, Potter said, plus another $24,000 on renovation work, a dog bath and other services. The Humane Society had covered 100% of Parvo, Heartworm and Hookworm treatments for animals there, and the organization split spay and neuter bills with the city 50/50. Aside from that, Humane Society partner Northbound Rescue Society had spent just under $100,000 on transport and preparation for travel over the past several years. Potter said that she is not sure whether Northbound Rescue Society will form its own partnership with the city. Potter said that several people in the community had been solicited recently by shelter staff for monetary donations, and she told The E-T that those individuals do not represent the Humane Society. “We want people to know that is not us,” Potter said. “We are not asking for monetary or supply donations for the Hough-Dement Animal Shelter.” Potter said that the Humane Society board plans to meet soon to discuss how they may support other operations and animal-related causes within the region. Last Thursday’s vote to hire Chudy as the shelter director was 4-1, with Sam Brock Jr. casting the lone nay vote. The board voted to hire Lemar Stucky as an attendant at the animal shelter. The board promoted Matthew Washington to lead animal shelter attendant. The board voted to remove shelter employee Jamie Davis from suspension and placed him on 90-day probation. That was a 3-2 vote, with nays coming from Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi and Ward 2 Alderman Darrell Simpson. The E-T reached out to the city this week for a response to the Humane Society’s decision, but there was no response by press time.
