The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the month Tuesday.
Hardin County Animal Care and Control Director Mike McNutt reported that during the month of September the animal shelter adopted out 52 dogs, returned 37 to owners, and euthanized 15. McNutt said the hard work of the animal control officers can be seen.
“The return to owner rate is at 30 percent,” McNutt said. “That’s the highest it’s been in five years. I think there’s a lot of different reasons for that, but mainly it’s because they’re doing it in the field as much as they can.”
The year-to-date shelter live release rate is at 91 percent, and McNutt said the struggle to maintain no-kill status only gets harder.
“The no kill status that we’ve received twice nationally, what it’s been for the past five years is a ratio, so it’s 90 percent of our animals leave alive,” McNutt said. “ We’re at 91 percent for the year-to-date and it’s a battle every day to make it to that.”
Due to the remnants of Hurricane Helene, the annual rabies clinic at the Hardin County Fairgrounds was rescheduled to Saturday, October 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. McNutt said the county has a goal of expanding their rabies services.
“It’s not something we’re mandated to do, but it is something we want to do to keep the public safe and healthy,” McNutt said. “The judge and I have been talking about it, and we have some plans. We’ll have one large major one on a Saturday and then we want to have little ones at different locations.”
In other meeting news, Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith reminded voters the absentee ballot request portal is open.
“It will be open through October 22,” Smith said. “If you will be out of the county all days and all hours of voting, or you qualify due to age, illness, or disability, please get in those requests early. To request those, it’s at govote.ky.gov or you can call our election staff at 270-765-6762.”
The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet October 22.
