Animal Shelter Committee member replies to letter

By Staff Reports

Editor:

As a member of the Elizabethton-Carter County Animal Shelter Building Committee, I was very upset by Linda Stewart’s letter regarding the new shelter. Ms. Stewart, how much do you really know about this project? For the past four years a small group of concerned citizens has struggled to do something about this situation. The current shelter is a rat-infested, disease-ridden disaster.

Yes, right now the new shelter will not be big enough, because of people like you who admit we need a new one, but do not commit time or money to help get one built. We are certainly not happy to have to settle for something half the size of our original plans, but at least it will be clean with air systems to prevent the spread of disease and an isolation area for such animals, and room for expansion in case instead of being critical people decide to donate money to make this something we can all be proud of.

Hopefully, in the future we won’t need a huge shelter if people can be educated to be more responsible pet owners by spay/neuter programs, by adopting animals only if they can afford them and by realizing they are not just dispensable things, but living creatures.

In case you or anyone else is interested, the following address is for donations: Elizabethton/Carter County Animal Shelter Building Fund, P.O. Box 1583, Elizabethton, TN 37644.

Diane Horton

Elizabethton