Humane Society struggles despite cuts

The Humane Society of Young County have reduced their annual expenses by almost $62,000, but despite this they are still $30,000 in the hole for the year and almost $5,000 for the month of August Humane Society of Young County Shelter President Rhonda Bone said Tuesday at a City budget meeting.

When Bone first became a part of the board there was only a president but no officers or treasurer and the shelter director had control over all of the money, accounts and operations. Since then she has worked on accountability at the shelter and has obtained a treasurer for bookkeeping which is doubled checked with a bookkeeping service in Graham, and all of the shelters taxes are done by an outside agency.

“In December 2016, from January to December, our total expenses were $231,484,” Bone said. “We were able to over the past year, we have reduced our expenses by almost $62,000, bringing our total expenses to Dec. 17 to $169,521.80. We have cut, sliced, diced. Our employees are making, minimum wage is $7.25, I believe they are making $7.50.”

There are three employees on the staff who clean the kennels and preform intake protocol on animals, giving them certain shots before they can be allowed in the general population, along with other job tasks.  With these employees is Shelter Director Hollie Larance who oversees operations at the shelter.

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