Future Oxford Animal Shelter to Transition into Animal Resource Center

The city of Oxford is moving forward with reinventing what having an animal shelter will look like in the near future.

During a special-called meeting on Monday, Mayor Robyn Tannehill said the city will be switching from being “enforcement-minded” to being “community-minded” when it comes to animal control services and providing a shelter for Oxford and Lafayette County stray cats and dogs.

“We will transition into an animal resource center instead of a shelter,” Tannehill said. “We will save a lot of animals and help a lot of people.”

Last week, the Board of Aldermen approved a contract with Team Shelter USA, headed up by nationally-known veterinarian Sara Pizano.

Tannehill said she and other city staff members talked to Pizano for more than an hour Monday.

“She is going to visit here next week,” Tannehill said about Pizano. “She’s going to help us develop a concrete plan in moving forward with accepting animals again. She has stressed that having open admissions is a model that is broken and that we should focus on managed admissions.”

Tannehill said what that means exactly will become more clear after Pizano’s visit next week.

The shelter was closed last month after the group managing it, Mississippi Critterz, came under fire after former employees and volunteers voiced complaints of overcrowding, lack of medical care for the animals and neglect. Inspections by local law enforcement agencies and veterinarians confirmed the shelter had several issues and lacked the staff to provide efficient care.

Since the shelter closed, the Oxford Police Department has handled calls for stray animals. Currently, three dogs are at the shelter under the care of a kennel attendant.

On Monday, the Board voted to hire an animal “peace” officer (formally called animal control officer) and a second kennel attendant to care for dogs or cats picked up only by the officer.

No surrenders are currently being accepted at the shelter.

The Board also approved spending $1,200 to deep clean the shelter and another $5,000 to clean four air conditioning units.