MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Some community members don’t think enough is being done to stop animal cruelty and stray animal issues in Montgomery County.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, People Assisting Animal Welfare (PAAW) founder Kristen Tilton hosted the town hall at the Dayton Masonic Temple Monday night.
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The meeting was filled with people who work with local rescues that are all facing the same problems. Too many abandoned dogs and not enough resources or people to take care of them.
Several local and state leaders were also in attendance.
Tilton said she has noticed that local organizations like Montgomery County Animal Resource Center and police departments have their hands tied because of the current laws.
“It’s almost like a third-world country driving around on the west side of Dayton, you see just animals and they’re breeding and it’s just heartbreaking,” Dayton Police Officer Cayce Cantrell said. “It’s hard for an officer to see that and not be able to do anything about it.”
Kylie Shafer is the Vice President of Hearts of Paws Trap and Rescue.
“We break ourselves to do this, we feel helpless,” Shafer said.
She said local shelters are having to pick up the slack from the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center.
Oftentimes, they run solely on donations or spend money out of their pockets to rescue stray or abused dogs.
“We spend hundreds of dollars in gas a month doing this. We have to constantly go out and bait traps, set traps, bungee them open at night so that we don’t get other animals, move the traps,” Shafer said.
Montgomery County ARC is currently housing more dogs than they have room for.
State Representative (R-Dayton) Phil Plummer attended the meeting to hear what people had to say.
“There’s a lot of comments about the Animal Resource Center in Montgomery County. I think we can really talk to them and explain what we’re hearing, and they can just make policy changes that correct a lot of this,” Plummer said.
He believes it could be beneficial to add another animal resource center in the county.
“We need to get funding from the state to help out all their costs,” Plummer said.
He thinks a specialized task force focusing on dumped dogs could help too.
“Judges, prosecutors, legislators, rescuers, let’s all sit down and figure this out,” Plummer said.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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