SALEM HUMANE SOCIETY Cutbacks thwarted by animal drop-offs

The animals are abandoned at the shelter after hours.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The Salem Humane Society is trying to reduce the number of animals at its Perry Township shelter, but the effort is being hindered because people keep leaving dogs and cats there.
"It's totally unreal," Mary Lou Popa, Salem Area Humane Society president, said Tuesday of the situation.
Popa estimated that about five dogs and cats are dropped off weekly at the shelter along U.S. Route 62 west of Salem.
The deliveries are made in the late evenings or overnight when the shelter is closed.
No more dogs: The facility officially stopped accepting dogs for adoption in August after the county prosecutor's office and township trustees requested that the practice be stopped.
Prompting the request were complaints from area residents about noise from barking dogs at the shelter.
The nonprofit organization also stopped accepting cats for adoption, citing a cash shortage.
The humane society planned to reduce the number of dogs and cats at the shelter until none were left.
Popa was unable to immediately say how many dogs and cats are now at the shelter.
She added that the after-hours dumping is making a reduction to zero difficult.
The society will not turn the dogs over to the county pound because it destroys canines that aren't adopted. The county pound does not accept cats.
Relocation prospect: Society officials are hopeful they can eventually relocate the shelter to another spot where it won't bother neighbors.
The group is interested in a city-owned 3.6-acre lot along Pennsylvania Avenue near Allen Road, adjacent to the city's sewage treatment plant.
The city recently had the property appraised at $29,000 or about $8,000 an acre.
No decision will be made about the shelter's future location until after a hearing Nov. 8 in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court, Popa said.
The humane society is embroiled in a legal battle with the similarly named Salem Humane Society Inc.
Both groups want the court to award them nearly $20,000 annually from a trust that has helped fund animal welfare efforts since about 1960.
The hearing could decide the trust fund issue.
leigh@vindy.com