Chester Co. residents start petition for animal shelter

HENDERSON, Tenn. — “It’s been a long time coming that we need an animal shelter,” Jessica Moore, a Chester County resident, said.

Residents in Chester County say one of their biggest problems is stray dogs. Now they’re ready to fix that problem.

“We started the petition about a year ago. It’s a county problem and we need the county to fix it,” Moore said.

That petition is to have an animal shelter or humane society built in Chester County.

The Henderson Animal Control Department only takes dogs found in the city.

We did reach out to the Chester County Mayor who said he didn’t want to be on camera. So, we asked him about the humane society for the county and he said it would just be too expensive.

But, volunteers say they’re willing to work to pay for the shelter.

“We would do fundraisers,” Moore said. “I mean humane societies work in all the other surrounding counties. I don’t feel like there would be any reason why Chester County couldn’t have one too.”

Moore says there are hot spots in the county where people drive and just dump the dogs they don’t want.

We also spoke with the Chester County Sheriff Blair Weaver on Wednesday. He didn’t want to be on camera, but he did tell us that they take seriously each call they get about dogs being left in unsafe conditions and they respond to each one.

Sheriff Weaver says they get calls almost every day about dogs being left outside, and if it is a case of animal cruelty they will follow through with the case.

But ultimately, Moore says, she and the small group of volunteers can’t do it on their own.

“We need the support of the community to get this done because, like I said, it’s a small group of volunteers,” Moore said. “There’s just four or five of us, and they won’t listen to just four or five. We need more.”

You can go to Oliver’s in Henderson to sign the petition.