A local community member approached the Clinton County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 17 to address community concerns regarding animal control and the city and county’s yearly contributions to the program.
Carin Moskovitz approached the county and city in March, September and October to pose questions and concerns regarding the current animal control contracts and donations based on her experiences with the functionality of the program. Moskovitz began by highlighting a case in Frankfort revolving around an incident where a man was arrested for animal neglect and cruelty after receiving reports from neighbors and community members starting in September 2022.
“Just recently, not recently actually, it’s been ongoing for 13 months, there was a man on our street that was arrested for animal neglect and cruelty,” Moskovitz said. “He had, at one point, Sept. 2, 2022, he had 17 cats in a cage outside, which we did call about. We were informed at that time that he had downsized from 100 cats, and he was allowed to have 37 cats. They also told us that they were vetted and that they were monitoring them on a regular basis.”
Moskovitz commented that the cage now houses six or seven cats, and Moskovitz claimed that the cats that were removed from the cage were most likely not alive due to the conditions that she reported. Moskovitz stated that Don Stock, Frankfort Director of Housing and Planning Initiatives, and Rodney Wann, Clinton County Health Department Administrator, took action in the situation.
“The cage’s probably got three to six inches of feces in it, and I know that it’s now in the hands of Don Stock and Rodney Wann,” Moskovitz said. “They took action. I know they’ve given him time to clean up. They’ve also told Animal Control to clean it up. It has to be cleaned up.”
Moskovitz concluded her initial comments by posing a question regarding the county’s contribution of $100,000 to the program, asking whether the funds have stipulations that would allow for increased efforts from the Animal Control team to address the reported incidents or whether the funds were a direct donation to the Humane Society.
“We are giving as a county over $100,000 to Animal Control when a year ago, 13 months ago, this was how Animal Control handled a situation,” Moskovitz said. “They have taken some of the animals. They can’t take them all at once. I understand that, but they’ve had 13 months to go take that. We’ve talked to board members, and board members have said they cannot legally take the animals. I guess I don’t understand, again, where Animal Control is. If they’re not legally allowed to take the animals that are in a neglect abuse case, then who is?”
Commissioner President Jordan Brewer responded to Moskovitz questions by asking the community for suggestions to improve the process of Animal Control, which he noted was limited in the scope of its ability to address certain situations due to the lack of open spaces at the Humane Society where feral and neglected animals would be housed.
“If you’re unhappy with it, which you are, and I’m not saying they’re doing a good job or they aren’t, I’m just listening to the information, bring us a proposed change of how it could be done better for us to consider,” Brewer said. “I’m open to that. The way we’ve been doing it isn’t necessarily the best way, and obviously we get a lot of complaints about it.”
Commissioner Bert Weaver referenced the initial case mentioned by Moskovitz, stating that he has been in contact with board members at the Humane Society to help address the situation, and he echoed Brewer’s comments regarding the ability of Animal Control to house the animals.
“I got the same complaint yesterday or the day before and how he’s been arrested several times before for animal cruelties and so forth, and you’re right, they’re right,” Weaver said. “If you want to paint your house brown, and this person wants to paint it blue, there’s certain things you can do and certain things you can’t do. You can’t go in and just confiscate somebody’s animals because you think that he’s not taking care of them. You’ve gotta go to court. You’ve gotta spend money. And then the judge is gonna say ‘well, you have five days to clean it up. You’ve got 30 days to clean it up.’ How is that going to happen? There’s nobody within a 100-mile radius that can do any different than what we’re doing right now.”
Weaver continued to state that he has begun negotiations and the process of drafting a new contract to address the situation. Brewer commented that the previous contract was established prior to the current commissioners taking office, and community feedback would be valued. Weaver stated that the current situations leave the commissioners with limited options, and the board would prefer to explore other opportunities to save the animals, commenting that increased involvement from the City of Frankfort might be a step toward solving the issue.
“For quite some time, the City did not contribute to anything, and so this particular year, the first year, I went to the City and agreed to have them participate with a $50,000 amount this year,” Weaver said. “The facts are, the same as Tippecanoe County, Tipton County, Howard County, all of them are full. We have a serious problem with cats. Our unit itself is loaded. We cannot take any more cats right now. There is no room at the inn. So, we’ve got two choices. Either we shoot the cats, which I can tell you there would be 75% of people out here who’d go for killing cats more so than this.”
Moskovitz stated that another route would be beneficial to the animals and the community aside from euthanasia of animals in the county that pose issues for community members due to her previous experiences working alongside Animal Control in the past.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been in that situation where I did work there, and that was the choice we’d had to make, and that was because we had animals stack up, and unfortunately that is because people in the city, county, wherever are irresponsible and don’t do what they’re supposed to do with their animals, so that’s on a lot of people,” Moskovitz. “To tell me and other people that it’s being taken care of and it’s not, that’s where I take issue.”
Moskovitz referenced a comment made by Scott Shoemaker, Frankfort Police Department Chief, at a City Council meeting on March 13 where Shoemaker stated that receiving the $20,000 donation to his department rather than this year’s pledge to Animal Control would allow for his department to hire an officer specifically to address the issues. However, Shoemaker commented during the meeting that the limited space to contain the animals would still prove to be an issue.
“There is no state statute for animal control. It’s up to a city or a county. In our case, there’s only 40 or so animal controls in Indiana, and they mostly partner with the Humane Society,” Shoemaker said in the March 13 meeting. “Animal Control might take them. I have nowhere to put them, so that’s kind of where we’re all at. I’ve offered if you want to give me $20,000, I will hire an animal control. The problem is, where do you take them?”
Brewer responded to Moskovitz’ comment that the city was willing to take action by stating that the situation could be improved with more involvement, and Weaver stated that 72% of the calls and animals removed from residences were inside the city limits.
“That’s perfect,” Brewer said. “The City could take over all this because honestly all the problems are in the city. I don’t get one complaint from county residents. I’ve literally never had a complaint for someone in the county, because if there’s animal control problems in the county, people take care of them. That’s just the reality of it, so it sounds like to me it’s a city problem, not a county problem.”
Moskovitz encouraged the county to collaborate with city officials to better address the situation together rather than attempt to address the complaints individually.
“I guess I don’t understand how you guys don’t talk and figure that out,” Moskovitz said. “It just doesn’t make any sense to me. We’re all one.”
Moskovitz clarified that her comments should not reflect poorly on the Humane Society, and she believes that the staff and board are working diligently to find a solution. However, she commented that the extended time periods between an initial report and a resolution were causing harm to the animals and the neighborhoods, and she requested an answer regarding the donated funds.
“I’m not saying the Humane Society’s not doing a great job,” Moskovitz said. “I’m not saying that. I’m saying what is Animal Control? What is this money allocated for? I’ve been coming here since March. That’s when I first came to you about that. It’s been seven months.”
Brewer reiterated that Weaver has been working toward developing a new contract for Animal Control in regard to the donation.
“Bert’s working on it,” Brewer said. “It just doesn’t happen overnight. I’ll leave the question out there. If you have changes that you think will help, please bring those to us to consider because I think we’re open to new ideas here because it doesn’t sound like what’s happening is working.”
For comments and solutions for the commissioners to consider, call 765-659-6309 or email Jerri Sexton at [email protected].