Roy Exum
If you are a dog or a cat in the Chattanooga area, it is very important to know exactly where the city limits are. You need to know that if a stray animal is rescued in the city, it is taken to one of the finest animal shelters in all of America. But if the errant pooch or tabby is found in Hamilton County – outside the city limits -- it is taken to arguably the worst animal facility in all of America for a community this size. Talk about heaven or you-know-where!
In a city that has the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Center, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hospital Authority and so forth, the idiocy of having two separate animal facilities is unfathomable.
If you are a human being in peril, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue Service answers the call, but dogs and cats aren’t that lucky.
The McKamey Animal Center, located at 4500 North Access Road, is a state-of-the art complex with room for animals to play with an army of loving volunteers, be adopted by people who are certain the animals are healthy, and given top-shelf medical care. With Carla McKamey as the board president and Jamie McAloon directing a dedicated and tireless staff, the sprawling and sparkling complex is quite literally a Godsend for animals inside the city limits.
In contrast, the county’s shelter known as the Humane Educational Society, is in terrible shape with no relief in sight. Executive Director Robert Citrullo will freely share that the outdated building “is literally falling down all around us.” County Commissioner Randy Fairbanks recently toured the facility and reported to his fellow commissioners it “is in appalling condition.”
Anyone who loves pets can drive by the shelter at 212 North Highland Park Avenue and be disappointed and anyone who goes inside will want to cry. As Citrullo shared with the commissioners recently, “We must address major issues including clogged sewer lines, broken air conditioners, dysfunctional vehicles and lighting problems. If we are unable to make these repairs, portions of our facility will be condemned.”
All of us, from those elected to those who are not, know the Humane Educational Society knows the situation is dire, and if the commission votes to give the HES a much-deserved increase in the proposed budget, be advised to throw money at the dilapidated 70-year-old building is folly.
Bob McKamey saw it coming. “When we first realized we needed a quality animal shelter in the city, I was met with excitement by the city of Chattanooga -- with open arms -- but got a cold shoulder from the county. We’ve got 10 beautiful acres at North Access Road. It is quiet and peaceful for animals that need help but our strengths are the fact there is always some fundraiser or animal adoption program going on and – this is the truth – we have the greatest volunteers you can imagine,” he said.
“We have a number of favorite people who live in the county – not the city – and some of them come almost every day to help in any way they can. You can’t imagine what that means to our staff…they stay excited. I am ashamed to say I don’t believe it is that way in the county program.”
So what would Bob McKamey, by far the largest donor to the center that bears his name, do about the county’s woes? “Very frankly, I’d try to merge the city and county services. That was my dream at the beginning,” said the auto giant. “I bet I know more elected county officials than most people and they’ve told me for years how jealous they are of what we have. My answer has always been the same: “Come join us.
“I can’t recall off the top of my head what we actually ended up spending on our shelter so you’d have to do a study to see what extra facilities would be needed. Somebody told me the county handles about 5,000 animals a year so we’d almost have to insist that anything would have to be done right,” he envisioned. “Sometimes when you get ‘too big’ it actually drags you down. We have the land, we have the know-how and we would definitely need to have the county commit to an equal role in a better complex than we have today.
“It could be done and I would love to see it before I leave this earth. But there has to be a commitment. Right know the city gives McKamey about $1.6 million that we supplement with fundraising, major gifts and a lot of donations. The county gives their shelter about $400,000 and it is easy to see why they are in trouble.
“I’ll say this…if we could combine services, the city and the county would eventually see a lot more bang-for-the-buck and, in time, we’d save a lot of money but give the animals better care. I believe the McKamey board would enjoy trying to help the county, but the County Commission would have to become more committed than it appears they are right now. There is a big difference between $1.6 million and $400,000.”
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Bob McKamey also has another dream for the city shelter. “I would love to build some type of dorm where we could take first-offender kids and assign each of them a dog or a cat. They could do their community service at McKamey and I believe if you could teach these young people about responsibility, teach them to take care of their precious lives like they would learn with a pet, which could really be something.
“I’ve seen programs where prisoners do this with horses and it changes their life. They learn to love when maybe they’ve never known it in their life. I know where there are some neglected dogs and cats that would love it, too.”
royexum@aol.com