Captured dogs left at Spartanburg Humane Society; new strays sent to Greenville
By Stephen Largen
About 100 animals remained at the Spartanburg Humane Society on Tuesday after county officials decided to pay the group, rather than having officers transport them to Greenville County.Spartanburg County Council voted Monday to sever ties with the SHS, opting to instead pay Greenville County $24,000 per month through February to take in and care for dogs and cats collected by Spartanburg County animal control officers.The move ended the county's relationship with the SHS.
SHS President Sandy Christiansen was not sure Tuesday of the prorated amount paid by the county to hold animals that had been brought to the SHS before the council vote.
Jamie Nelson, director of Spartanburg County Environmental Enforcement, which includes animal control, said Tuesday afternoon that county animal control officers had transported about six stray animals to Greenville County's shelter.
Nelson said animal control officers had to work through “a few bugs” Tuesday, such as learning to take photos of the animals that will be posted on Spartanburg County's website so that owners won't have to drive to Greenville to find out if their pets were picked up.
During the work week, county animal control officers are scheduled to make two daily trips to Greenville County to drop off strays.
Each of the county's animal control trucks can hold between eight and 10 animals. One officer will work on Saturdays on an on-call basis, but Nelson said stray animals will not be collected by animal control officers until Mondays.
The SHS is no longer accepting strays collected by county residents, but is continuing to accept owner-surrendered pets as a result of Monday's vote.
The organization is continuing to accept surrendered pets with no charge, but the organization could opt to begin charging a fee for the service. Nelson urged county residents to not collect strays and instead contact animal control at 864-566-3582 so that officers can collect them.
