Humboldt Animal Shelter issues lead to emergency rescue

HUMBOLDT, Tenn. — An emergency rescue took place Friday in Humboldt at the local animal shelter.

Local animal rescue groups took over 30 dogs from the Humboldt Animal Shelter.

Riley Ferrell with Brownsville Animal Shelter says after the caretaker of the shelter was fired, they were told the dogs would be euthanized.

“The moment she got fired, all of these rescues got together and we all decided that something had to happen, and something had to happen quickly because the Mayor told someone that we had [until] 8 a.m. to arrive and pick up dogs,” Ferrell said.

She says according to the city, any animal that arrives at the shelter has seven days to be adopted before being euthanized. But that was not happening.

Ferrell says a letter was written to the Humboldt mayor about the conditions of the shelter and that a dog had died.

“Way less than sub-par,” Ferrell said. “The animals, they weren’t really getting the attention they needed, but it is also fair to say that was only ever one animal control officer to care for the dogs.”

An anonymous source says there were 34 dogs in the shelter with only enough room for 12 to 14 dogs. The source also says they were given an allowance of $200 every two weeks, but it was not enough to take care of the dogs currently in the shelter. Sources say the dogs were put on social media websites regularly to get them adopted.

“The goal was to get them out fostered or get them some adoption situations, and they were communicating that early on adoptions [were] happening here. This is an all time low for every single animal to be removed,” said Humboldt resident Christine Marrington.

According to Ferrell, every dog in the shelter was taken to a rescue.

Resident Christine Marrington says she wants to see a change.

“Working on these small facets of the town that will really help in the beautification of it,” Marrington said. “This is something that is a heart thing. That really needs to be addressed in this community to do some real clean up on it.”

We reached out to the Humboldt Mayor’s Office for comment and have not currently received a response.

All dogs that were rescued will be cared for at surrounding animal rescues.

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