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Animal Shelter Consolidates with Controversy

Animal Shelter Consolidates with Controversy (Added: December 29, 2009)

Now a division of the Phenix City police department, the new Russell County Phenix City animal shelter is experiencing an influx of animals from the old shelter. (more)

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By Alison Flowers
Published: December 29, 2009

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Within an hour of the Russell County Commission's vote last week, Dr. Jill Ring, veterinary director of the new animal shelter, was escorted off the premises.

Ring only told News 3 that she was about to treat some animals when Phenix City Chief of Police Ray Smith asked her to leave. Smith said that Ring was adopting out an animal, which could be done by the new shelter coordinator.

But now that Ring is gone, no one on-site is qualified to perform euthanizations under the current licensure, though the new shelter coordinator is trained to perform them.

Former board member Dr. Holley Caldwell is concerned the animals won't get the care they need under the restructured plan.

"If you have just lay people running the program, the knowledge and experience is just not there," Caldwell said. "The animals are really the ones who are going to suffer."

But Chief Smith said that the animals are the shelter's first priority.

"We have our contacts with veterinarian that we call on from time to time to operate those kinds of services, but those are on a case by case basis," Smith said.

And Smith contends that paying for those services on a case by case basis will be less costly than keeping a veterinarian on staff.

But Dr. Ring said that she took a pay-cut and relocated on her own dime to take the job as shelter director in the first place.