Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Animal Welfare topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Friends of Animal Shelter urges county support for spay‑and‑neuter, cites falling euthanasia rate
Summary
Speakers from Friends of the Hancock County Animal Shelter asked supervisors to increase support for spay-and-neuter programs, dog licensing and veterinary recruitment; they cited shelter statistics showing a decline in the euthanasia rate year‑over‑year.
Friends of the Hancock County Animal Shelter presented public comments urging the county to expand support for spay‑and‑neuter initiatives and other measures to reduce shelter euthanasia.
Mary Ann Mays, a Friends board member, summarized the group’s work on trap‑neuter‑return (TNR) and voucher programs and urged county promotion and funding for spay/neuter, recruitment of participating veterinarians, investigation of dog licensing and increased staffing for animal-control enforcement. Mays cited state and local statistics in her remarks, saying an independent study of Mississippi shelters reported an aggregate save rate of 72.7 percent (47,493 saved out of 65,351 intake) with 11,983 animals killed in the dataset. She said 20 of 57 shelters studied achieved a 90 percent or better save rate.
Mays and Carol Stromats, who spoke after Mays, also provided Hancock County shelter figures: 1,193 admissions in 2023 and 1,114 in 2024, with an overall euthanasia rate of 22.6 percent in 2023 that fell to 14.6 percent in 2024. Both commenters recommended public awareness campaigns, school outreach, recruiting veterinarians and partnering with Mississippi State University’s veterinary program to run larger spay/neuter clinics.
Their remarks were delivered during the public‑comment portion of the meeting; no formal board action on these recommendations was taken on Feb. 18.
