Hancock County Animal Shelter has dogs for adoption; needs more space

Ronnie York, Director of the Hancock County Animal Shelter and County Dog Warden invites you to come out to the Hancock County Animal Shelter in Lewisport at 305 Gene Hayden Road and walk and play with the dogs.                        

“The thing I’d like to see the community get into is just come and walk the dogs,” Ronnie said. “Have a good time and enjoy the dogs. It will make you happy as well. It’s a great way to get exercise, sunshine and fresh air, as well as helping the community and the animals. We have several areas that are fenced-off – grassy areas for people to take the dogs and walk them and play. There are toys back there. You can play fetch with them. I have treats here. We just need people to walk them and play with them. The more the merrier.”

There are always more dogs coming in than what they have help to take care of and the adoptions are down because of the economy, Ronnie said. They have a lot of volunteers from the schools and others in the community and they certainly appreciate them, however there is still a need for more. They are always open for volunteers to come in – especially Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The shelter is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Monday through Friday and from 8:00 a.m. to noon on Saturday. They are closed on Sundays, and they are open most holidays. “If somebody wanted to come out and volunteer, we are usually here,” Ronnie said. Colleen Garcia works part-time at the shelter and is there on any days that he isn’t available.

“Saturday is a perfect day for a lot of the kids to come out and get some graduation hours or volunteer hours,” Ronnie said. “They’d need to call me in advance for that.” The Hancock County Animal Shelter phone number is 270-927-8544 and the email is hancockcountyanimalshelter@gmail.com.

“Right now I have 17 dogs and I have 16 kennels,” Ronnie said. “We’ve had a really high number of puppies here. I have a 2-year-old shepherd mix here. He’s neutered and ready to go. I have Mia, she’s a 4-year-old lab mix and she’s ready to go. I have an 8-year-old border collie that was brought in – she’s ready to go. I have a husky. He is about 18-months-old.” If you’d like to view the dogs currently waiting for new homes, please go to the Friends of Hancock County Animal Shelter FB Page.

“Mondays and Fridays are extremely busy most of the time,” Ronnie said. “So I’m usually out picking up dogs and taking care of problems from the weekend or before the weekend. Those days are hard for me to receive volunteers because I’m the only one for the county Monday-Friday. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays are really good days to volunteer and Saturday is a perfect day.”

The HC Animal Shelter only receives dogs. Veronica Taylor takes care of stray cats in the area and the Humane Society also takes care of some of them, Ronnie said.

How does he know if one of the dogs he picks up already has an owner? Ronnie said some dogs have been micro-chipped with a chip that’s about the size of a grain of rice. They have a scanner at the shelter that detects all different types. They scan each dog when they come in and if the microchip number comes up, he calls the toll free number and is told who the owner is, where they live, the phone number and the email – as long as the information has all been kept current.

He said that Daviess County and Breckinridge County Animal Shelters are both full and overflowing as well. “It’s just that time of the year, and the economy – it’s a disaster for every shelter,” Ronnie said. “The main thing is that I do have a lot of community support and that’s awesome.”

The people hadn’t come in to spray for pests for a few weeks and Ronnie had brought that up at the last Hancock County Fiscal Court meeting. He said he discovered that the employee who sprays there had been in the hospital. He is doing better now and came to the shelter on Thursday, October 20 to spray. That issue has been resolved. Now, it’s time for you to go to the shelter as soon as you can and help them out and also make a new fur friend!