Sumner County committee hears animal-control director on staffing, budget and spay/neuter strategy

An animal-control director who identified themself as director of Rutherford County Animal Control since Feb. 2011 told a Sumner County ad hoc committee that counties can run more effective shelter and care programs when animal control operates separately from a sheriff’s office, while acknowledging coordination with law enforcement remains essential.

The director said Rutherford County’s animal-control operation is budgeted for about 40 positions (37 full-time, 3 part-time) and a roughly $3.1 million annual budget that was adjusted to $3.2 million after a mid-year salary increase. The director said licensing revenue (a $5 dog-and-cat license fee set in 2015) and donations offset part of the budget, and that the county also receives contributions from municipalities including Smyrna and Murfreesboro. The director described a spay/neuter surgery program begun in 2014–15 that, they said, reduced shelter euthanasia rates from roughly 70–80 percent when they arrived to under 10 percent in typical months.

The director described training and certification for officers (National Animal Control Association training 1 and 2, state humane-euthanasia certification through an organization they named) and said animal-control officers are not state-certified law-enforcement officers; they work closely with sheriff’s deputies and municipal police for arrests, search-warrant service and other…