When Hardin County Animal Care and Control Director Mike McNutt was presented with the 2023 Achievement for Animals Award at the Kentucky Animal Welfare Summit in Frankfort Friday, he said the award was just as much a testament to his team at the Hardin County Animal Shelter and the people who call Hardin County home.
“The community’s got to be on board, and there’s a few naysayers out there who, quite frankly, just are uneducated about the problems and are listening to the wrong people, but for the most part this community is the big reason for the success of this shelter, not to mention the support we get from Hardin County Government,” McNutt said.
McNutt has been involved in animal care for more than 35 years, serving in his current position since 2016. Humane Society of the United States Kentucky State Director Todd Blevins said during the summit that McNutt and the shelter’s efforts are evident beyond Hardin County.
“In that time, Mike has made Hardin County one of the premier shelters in the state,” Blevins said. “In the truest sense of the word, they are one of our leaders in this state, and that’s thanks to his leadership, but he hasn’t stopped there. He’s branched out to surrounding counties in his area, and I believe some of those individuals are here today, too, which I think is a testament to Mike’s leadership in the entire region and indeed in the entire state.
McNutt said the shelter has a multi-year streak of achieving No-Kill status going, and the experience of the staff has allowed the shelter to focus on fixing problems animal shelters have faced in the past.
“Now we know where we’ve always been doing it wrong, that making a place that accepts animals 24/7 made the animals disposable, like trash,” McNutt said. “That is not acceptable today. We pick up animals when we do, the timeframe that we do, because it’s all part of a plan to fix the problem, to fix what’s broken.”
McNutt said support for the shelter was evidenced by Elizabethtown City Council Member Julia Springsteen and Hardin County Judge-Executive Keith Taul attending the summit.
Find the Hardin County Animal Shelter on Facebook for more information and to follow along with the shelter’s activities.
(Photo Credit: Mike McNutt)
