By Scott Pearson

Staff Writer

The Lewisburg Animal Shelter has experienced several changes in the last six months, and now they are looking for more volunteers to help them make more.

The shelter is holding a question-and-answer night at the Marshall County Memorial Library on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m. in the hope of attracting more volunteers to assist with dogs in the shelter.

Shelter Manager Susan Ragsdale cleared up one question quickly.

"We don't need them to clean out kennels," she said, "that's my job."

Instead, Ragsdale and the other shelter volunteers would like people to help improve on the shelter's mission and expand its reach in the community.

"We need people to spend time with the dogs, to help us socialize them," Ragsdale said. "We could use people to help bathe the dogs or even just answer the phone at the shelter."

They would like to have help outside of the shelter too, said volunteer coordinator Brandy Fox.

"We would love to add volunteers with special skills, a photographer, a social media person, a graphic designer," she said.

The more they know about the dogs, how they are with new people or how they do on a leash for example, and the better they can market them the easier it is for the shelter to find them new homes.

The shelter works with several animal rescue groups that take dogs from the shelter to find them new homes. Some of the current shelter dogs are heading to new homes soon as far away as Canada.

In 2016, rescue groups took 115 dogs from the shelter and another 115 were adopted in the local community. The shelter reunited 130 dogs with their owners.

Ragsdale is proud of the fact that the shelter has not had to euthanize a dog in order to make space for four years. Only dogs who are too aggressive with people to be adopted or dogs who come in past the point of medical care are put down. Last year that category added up to only 11 dogs.

Recent attention to the shelter from the city should improve the facility even more.

The shelter falls under the Lewisburg Police Department. This summer, Chief David Henley changed the name of the division from Animal Control to Animal Welfare, signaling a change in attitude and outlook.

Thanks to volunteers and donations the city added a new Animal Welfare vehicle and also brought Ragsdale, who has volunteered at the shelter for years, on as a full-time shelter manager.

Previously, catching a volunteer or an animal control officer at the shelter was a matter of chance.

Lewisburg provides the building and basic care for the animals. The volunteer group raises funds to cover additional medical needs. Both the city and county employ one animal welfare officer.

The facility only has space to take in stray dogs. They will put people in contact with groups that deal with owner-surrendered dogs or stray cats.

With a new attitude and a fresh start at the shelter, Ragsdale would like to expand the shelter's reach and continue improving the facility and its services.

That's why they'd like to add more volunteers to the already devoted group they have.

"I'd love to get a bunch of people to help get these programs off the ground," Ragsdale said. "It's all about the dogs."