Callander: Face it: Animals need county-run shelter

We’ve been hearing for some time about a proposal to put a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals compound on the site of the old Brooke Nursing Home. Animal lovers have shown up at county meetings in pawed t-shirts to express support for the project, but all is not rosy with the plan.

The planning commission has recommended against the needed conditional use permit for the facility — or many reasons, including items brought up by citizens as well as technical issues. The commission should be commended for its diligence. This project is wrought with problems and should be denied.

Some of the strongest negative comments come from community activists who criticize the board of supervisors’ decision to be the applicant for businessman Bill Hoyt’s project.

The supervisors fell for a convincing presentation on the need to provide a no-kill facility for abandoned or stray cats and dogs, and given the severe budget crisis, they saw the private approach to dealing with needy animals to be an opportunity to strip a new animal shelter from the county’s capital improvements plan.

That should never have happened.

The board showed extreme naiveté in falling for Hoyt’s presentation without having more background information about the plans, the potential problems and the reputation of the entrepreneur.

Now, let’s say for the sake of discussion that the businessman has a stellar reputation and has experienced complete success with previous endeavors. Would the proposal have merit?

Though admirably comprehensive, the vision presented by Mr. Hoyt would be unbelievably expensive to pull together and will rely mostly on donations. Even if started privately, the facility will be looking for public money down the road.

It’s true the need is enormous and Stafford has neglected its moral obligations to the community animal population. It’s not uncommon for SPCAs to come to the rescue, as the Fredericksburg facility does.

In Brooke some adjacent residents fear they will be listening to barking dogs, dealing with more car traffic, and wondering if their ground water has been contaminated by animal waste and sanitation chemicals.

They should be worried. SPCAs and animal shelters are normally located on public water and sewer and in industrial zoning, but not this one.

Why should homeowners be subjected to the potential well contamination? Though dogs may be man’s best friends, these homeowners certainly weren’t expecting this many “friends” when they purchased their homes.

The board of supervisors should pull the current application, put the new county-owned animal shelter back in the capital improvement plan, and start planning to pay for a very worthwhile public facility on county water and sewer lines.

If Hoyt wants to start up an SPCA and/or a commercial dog park, or whatever, he can apply, but regardless we need a new and expanded county-run facility and should face up to it.

Compare our county’s spacious new buildings with our pitiful animal shelter. We must do better.

Alane Callander is a south Stafford resident active in many local causes. Reach her at info@staffordcountysun.com.