The dog shelter is facing a slow period in business but workers continue to look on the bright side.
The 20 or so dogs at the Athens County Dog Shelter come in all shapes and sizes.
Some are still growing into their loose-fitting fur, while other older canines tower overhead. The shelter features common breeds — labradors and rottweilers — with some mutts sprinkled in.
But all, except one, didn’t have their legally-required dog tags, as of late October.
Therein lies the problem currently straining the shelter’s finances.
Compared to this point last calendar year, the shelter has sold about 400 fewer dog tags — typically a main source of revenue for the office.
Because of this, a full-time position, put in place just last year, might become part-time.
Dog tag renewals for the year 2015 runs from Dec. 1 to Jan. 31. Tags are $16 for a fixed, hunting, and show dog, but $26 for every other dog. Owners are legally bound to buy tags for their dogs within 30 days of acquiring a canine.
An untagged dog makes it difficult to track down its owners.
Last year, Athens County Commissioners hiked up those prices by $2 each to make room for a fourth full-time employee. But now that sales are lagging, those same officials are entertaining the notion of scaling that position back to part-time.
The budget for the dog shelter for the past calendar year was $260,588. Commissioners have said in recent weeks the shelter is already operating under a $24,000 budget shortage this year.
Shelter workers have suggested to commissioners that computer purchases have contributed to the unforeseen shortfall, they say more concrete reasons are elusive.
Kennel keeper Ashley Ward said she believes that maybe that costly tags might be deterring county residents from abiding by the law and forking over the cash.
“It’s possible that the increase in prices have caused the drop in sales, but either way, we’ve seen a lot less than normal,” Ward said.
The shelter has been trying everything they can to help boost business.
“We have a bunch of promotions going on with adoption, (and) we also have free training and grooming,” Ward said.
Athens County Dog Warden Jeff Koons is frequently at commissioners’ meetings to discuss the shelter’s business. A change in the fourth, full-time position wouldn’t bode well for the workers left at the shelter.
“We obviously don’t want to see that, and we don’t have any plans for if that happens, because we are planning on it not happening, and we will do all that we can to prevent that,” Ward said.
The shelter’s finances will be reviewed at the end of the year, said Democratic Commissioner President Lenny Eliason.
With potential budget cuts looming, Ward and Koons agree that they’ve turned to the dogs to keep spirits up around the office.
“Of course, the dogs are the greatest thing about working here, they are so much fun, just look at them,” Ward said.
A normal day at the shelter for Koons usually involves feeding and cleaning the dogs in the morning, then going over any emergency messages they might have received, and then “going out and splitting up in every direction looking for dogs and being ready to rescue a dog in any situation.”
“On average, we probably rescue about two dogs a day,” Koons said.
He recalled one particularly memorable rescue that his coworker, Max Bishop, completed a few years ago.
“It was during a flood, and the dog was all the way out in the middle of the water, while on top of that, caught in a barbed wire fence,” Koons said. “He went all the way out there with wire cutters and saved the dog.”
“I think he still has the piece of barbed wire that he cut out of the dog’s hair.”
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