OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - An independent group will evaluate a Mississippi animal shelter that was recently shut down amid complaints about shoddy treatment of animals.
The Oxford Eagle reported that the Oxford Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to hire Tim Crum and Animal Shelter Services. Officials said Crum is a nationally recognized expert on shelter operations.
Crum and his staff will perform an assessment over four days in April to see how the shelter can run more efficiently. With the shelter being empty, Crum will evaluate the space and setup of the building. He also will look at prior management contracts with nonprofit groups that ran the shelter, which is jointly owned by the City of Oxford and Lafayette County.
“We want an unbiased evaluation by someone who is an expert in the field and who is not currently, nor never been, connected to local agencies or individual interests,” Mayor Robyn Tannehill said during the city board meeting Tuesday. “We want someone to assess our needs with a singular focus on protecting animals.”
The remaining animals at the shelter were picked up Tuesday and transported by Nashville-based Animal Rescue Corps. The nonprofit organization specializes in assisting communities with large-scale animal issues. It will provide care until the animals are put with one of the organization’s national placement partners.
Tannehill said Oxford and Mississippi Critterz mutually agreed to terminate a shelter management contract. Mississippi Critterz had been running the shelter since late 2018. Before that, the Oxford-Lafayette Humane Society had run the shelter since 2011.
The contract with Crum is for $22,000, and the cost will be shared with Lafayette County, according to the Oxford Eagle.
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