Our Shelter

The Tipton County Animal Shelter (Tipton County Tennessee, 2023) is a Municipal Animal Shelter (Humane Society, 2012) for Tipton County, Tennessee located in Brighton, Tennessee. The shelter functions as “animal control” for Tipton County and is funded by tax dollars and governed by a board of elected Commissioners. The medical budget for the shelter is $60,000 annually (Reed, 2023). “Friends of the Tipton County Animal Shelter” a 501c3 organization assist the shelter with spay/neuter cost, medical expenses, and transport cost (Riley, 2023). The shelter has an Operations Manager, Office Manager, two Animal Control Officers (MTAS, 2002), and three kennel workers (Reed, 2023). Although not written - the shelter Operations Manager cited the mission as being two-fold – “protecting the human public from risks posed by animals and protecting animals from abuse, pain, and suffering”. She also cited a more recent goal of finding homes for unwanted animals through adoption and transport to rescue partners. The shelter is an Open-Admission Shelter (Humane Society, 2012) legally required to take in all strays regardless of age, temperament, or health. The shelter animal control officers investigate animal abuse, neglect, bites, and any other animal control issues in the county. They pick up stray animals and accept owner-surrendered pets and any animals in need. The shelter will turn away owner-surrendered animals if the shelter is reaching full capacity. The maximum capacity for the shelter is 45 dogs and 35 cats (Riley, 2023). The Animal Control Officers are deputies with the Tipton County Sherriff’s Department. All shelter employees report to the County Public Works Director who reports to the County Commission (Reed, 2023).

The shelter is a “No-Kill” shelter (Bestfriends, 2025) with over a 90% Save Rate.

The shelter is very transparent with population statistical reports and will share them if requested but it is not regularly published on the website (Riley, 2023).

A total of 1745 animals entered the shelter in 2021. Based on the 2021 data, the annual intake for the shelter is 754 dogs and 991 cats. A total of 118 dogs were euthanized due to illness, injury, or aggression. There were 37 cats euthanized due to illness or injury including FELV-positive cats. Only adoptable cats are tested for Felv and FIV (Riley, 2023). There were 45 (5.9%) dogs and 259 (26.2%) cats adopted by the public with a monthly adoption rate of 3.75 adoptions per month. There were 421 (24.1%) dogs and 418 (42.1%) cats transferred to rescue groups. The shelter reports a Save Rate of 93.23 % for 2021 and a Euthanasia Rate for all animals of 6.76%. Animals Released to Owner was 28%. (See Appendix).

The shelter offers a TNR program for feral cats and a community cat program (Hennessy, 2017 p.1) for unowned community cats to be spayed/neutered and released back into their communities or colonies. The shelter maintains a small feral colony (about 20 cats) on the premises for surrendered ferals that need placement. The Tipton County Shelter operates a Feline Spay/Neuter Clinic with Munford High School Veterinary Science program to spay and neuter all the cats entering the shelter as well as cats coming in for the TNR and Community Cat programs. The feline spay/neuter clinic has altered 4178 cats since its beginning 6 years ago. The spay/neuter clinic has three cooperating veterinarians that share surgery duties with a minimum of five surgery days each month. The clinic also treats sick and injured shelter animals as well as writes health certificates for transfers to rescue partners. The shelter also offers a PAL (Preventing Another Litter) program to spay female dogs when their litter is surrendered to the shelter. The shelter has an active foster program with over 10 fosters for young kittens and puppies. The Veterinary Science programs at both neighboring high schools also foster medical cases if needed (Riley, 2023). The largest partnering rescue group is Wayside Waifs in Kansas City, Missouri (Wayside Waifs, 2018).

One recommendation, based on the 2021 data, is for the Tipton County Animal Shelter to open a Canine Spay/Neuter Clinic at neighboring Brighton High School. Currently, the shelter does not have a veterinarian in the county willing to spay/neuter dogs from the shelter. This is limiting the number of dogs that are being adopted by the community, with only 45 dog adoptions in 2021 (see Appendix). Most dogs leaving the shelter are transferred to rescues that have more spay/neuter options available (421 dogs transferred in 2021). The shelter offers a Spay/Neuter Voucher for adopted dogs to be spayed/neutered however, the only veterinarian accepting the vouchers is out of county and has a several-month-long waiting list for spay/neuter surgeries. Another recommendation is to change the shelter software to “Shelter Luv” since the current record-keeping system is out of date and difficult to use.

I interviewed Lee Riley, Operations Manager of the Tipton County Animal Shelter. (L. Riley, personal communication, March 6, 2023) and Shannon Reed, Tipton County Public Works Director, (S. Reed personal communication, March 6, 2023), to obtain information about the Tipton County Animal shelter. The 2021 Tipton County Animal Shelter data is included in the Appendix.

 

 

References

 

Hennessy, Sonya. “Shelter Terminology.” Position Statements, 2017 https://www.sheltervet.org/assets/PDFs/shelter%20terminology.pdf Accessed 7 Mar. 2023.

 

Humane Society, https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/all-shelters-are-not-alike.pdf

p. 1, 2012. Accessed 7 Mar. 2023.