By Billy Davis

A hastily-formed coalition of Panola Countians made a plea Monday for Panola County supervisors to build temporary holding pens to house dangerous dogs.

Authorities busted a dog fighting ring March 2, confiscating two injured pit bulls. But the county has no facility for housing any of the dogs — a problem that brought together Humane Society members, a sheriff’s deputy, and a dog theft victim.   

The answer they got from supervisors: silence.

Supervisors allowed the visitors to file out of the boardroom, then the county board moved on to discuss a health insurance policy for Panola County employees.

The request for a temporary shelter, specifically four pens and a concrete floor, never resurfaced as a topic during the Second District meeting.

Asked later why the Board of Supervisors did not discuss the request, board president Gary Thompson said, “I can’t answer that. We moved on to other business.”

Thompson also said he had not spoken to other supervisors by Wednesday about the Humane Society’s request since supervisors recessed Monday.  

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Humane Society member Kim Strickland said when told supervisors did not discuss the request.

“It’s been going on for so long, since 1994,” Strickland added. “It’s not a priority for them.”

Strickland and other Humane Society members have fumed for years as local elected officials have started then stopped plans to build an animal shelter.

Construction of Panola County’s first animal shelter came closest in 2008, when the City of Batesville and Panola County government agreed to share funding. But funds budgeted for a shelter disappeared when the economy took a dive, leaving construction of a shelter unlikely in the near future.

Batesville currently operates the only facility for stray dogs, an open-air shelter located east of Batesville.

At the Monday meeting, Strickland served as spokesman for the Humane Society and read from a prepared speech.

She explained that the sheriff’s department is obligated by law to investigate animal cruelty allegations but has nowhere to house confiscated dogs.

The sheriff’s department does not want the dogs housed on its grounds due to liability issues, Strickland also said, citing a recent meeting with Sheriff Otis Griffin.

Panola sheriff’s deputy Bobby Billingsley further explained that animal cruelty cases have been a “prolific problem,” in the county “and it’s steadily getting worse,” he said.

“The newspaper’s been writing stories about what’s going on,” said the deputy. “The next headline will be that a dog killed somebody.”  

Billingsley suggested building three or four pens on a concrete slab, saying that structure would be akin to a tool for the sheriff’s department, like a radio and a sidearm.

Others who spoke included Robbie Haley, a longtime sheriff’s administrator. She asked board attorney Bill McKenzie if Panola County can add money to misdemeanor fines to help fund an animal shelter.

That action would likely require action from the state legislature, which is close to finishing its current session, McKenzie replied.

Tax assessor deputy clerk Gaeba Magness stepped across the courthouse hall Monday to wear another hat, explaining to supervisors that her family’s dog had been stolen, probably mistaken for a pit bull. It was later found dead under a bridge, she said.

Strickland said Panola Countians sent 835 animals to the Oxford-Lafayette animal shelter last year. Eighty-five percent of those animals were euthanized, she said.

Still reading from her letter, Strickland told supervisors stray dog problems are “astronomical.” She added that supervisors aren’t aware of the problem “because you don’t deal with it and you don’t have any idea.”

But that will now change, she said, since the Humane Society is directing callers to contact supervisors about problems with strays and dangerous dogs.