I am a Chattanooga resident and animal lover in Hamilton County. The requested increase for the Humane Educational Society’s budget should be approved.
If we cannot take care of those who have no voice, who will? HES team members and volunteers are very dedicated to making Hamilton County a better place to live, for everyone.
Commissioners, please help them by approving this budget increase.
Bonnie M. Phillips
Chattanooga
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I'm new to Chattanooga. One of the first things you notice about this community is how welcoming places are to people with their pets. Restaurants with open air patios that allow pets, shops with water bowls out for pets on leashed walks, even a special spay and neuter clinic that helps with costs. Wonderful and welcoming. I love this city. Even the homeless pets have several organizations that the public trusts to help take care of animals in need.
I just wanted to take a minute to ask you to research and then support the Humane Educational Society and their recent plea for more funding. If you will look into their proposal, they do so much to help create a safe and happy community, while struggling to keep their facility intact. Surely the benefits of having such a worthwhile organization merit their request for more financial assistance.
Thank you for covering this topic. Perhaps the locals don't yet realize that this need is being discussed and will be voted on by their county commissioners. The public can easily request emails from the HES website, to keep them updated, or if they want to participate in the process.
I'm asking that you will follow through with this request to support the Humane Society with their needs. Thank you for all the animal and pet coverage you offer.
Mary Weber Marr
Chattanooga
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I volunteer at the Humane Society on a weekly basis. My contribution is to transport a dog or cat to Paul Barys at Channel 3 News on Monday night for the six o'clock newscast where he features that pet for possible adoption. With Paul's contribution, we are able to adopt out on the average about every other week. I also do Character Education as it relates to pet care throughout Hamilton County Schools as a free service which is my volunteer contribution to HES. As a result, the children from CSLA, having raised money from one of their service projects, donated it to the Humane Society. This is the second year the school children have donated to HES. The decision to contribute to HES was the children's. If children can see the value in contributing, I would hope that others would too. I viewed Executive Director Bob Citrullo's plea for funding from the Commission for an amount of about $620,970 to help get the aging, deteriorating facility back up to speed. Please note that this money is not going for anything other than repairs to broken air conditioning, leaky roof, and a safeguard of asbestos removal and some electrical repair. For the small staff that works in these deplorable conditions with no thoughts of their own health and safety, this is a legitimate request. There is nothing 'fancy' about the facility and I might add that they do everything possible to present a clean, bright appearance to the public even though the building is falling down around them. HES cannot depend on children's contributions to keep them afloat. I know that the Commission has some tough decision to make in the very near future, but hope they also see the value in what HES is doing in the community to keep our animal population controlled and, in a lot of instances cared for - some over a long period of time.
Donna Horn, East Brainerd