Animal welfare issues dog Wilson County

This column was published in the Wilson Times Aug. 24, 2019.

What’s the most long-lasting, persistent local issue in Wilson County over the past 30 or 40 years? A lot has happened since I moved to Wilson in 1980. The city has grown, new businesses and industries have arrived, elected officials have all turned over (not a single City Council or County Board member from 1980 has continued in office today), tourism has become important to the local economy, “Acid Park” has moved and changed its name to the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, downtown has declined and revived.

But you can argue that the greatest, most-long-lasting issue before Wilson County these past nearly 40 years has been dogs. Years after the county Sheriff’s Office took over animal control responsibilities and county commissioners agreed to set aside money for a new animal shelter and began licensing dogs, the debate over a new shelter rages on. Animal advocates feel they had been misled about the county’s intentions and now are skeptical that the new shelter will ever be built or built in the “right” place. Recent agreements give hope that this four-decade debate might finally be settled.

As I have gone through file folders of clippings from my years at The Wilson Daily Times, I have come across two columns about the dog issue from 2004. The first column references an incident sometime before 1983 in the newspaper’s old office at 117 S. Goldsboro St. Two teenage girls, who had just discovered that dogs taken to the county shelter were euthanized if not claimed or adopted, came by and wanted me to start a campaign to reverse this policy. According to my recollections in the 2004 column, I asked them what they propose doing with the unwanted dogs. “We’ll take care of them,” they told me. I pointed out that within a few years, they would be caring for thousands of dogs — too big a task even for idealistic teenagers.

Earlier in 2004, I had written a column about the dog issue, pointing out the large number of letters to the editor about dogs that year as the county considered a spay-neuter policy at the shelter and discussed replacing the severely inadequate animal shelter. Animal advocates organized behind the local Humane Society, For the Love of Dogs and other groups.

Animal welfare was arguably the hottest issue in Wilson County 1980-2004, I wrote, bigger even than the “Couches on Porches” law that landed our fair city on the front page of the New York Times (beneath a byline by Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg). If you’re not familiar with the COP matter, it involved a city ordinance aimed at beautifying the city by forbidding the use of couches and upholstered chairs on front porches, where they are exposed to weather and rot. Bragg reported the matter as a racial or class issue, although African-Americans on City Council voted for the ban, which was later compromised.

Only an issue as emotional as animal welfare could have topped Couches on Porches. People care deeply about their animal companions, and I understand that emotion. My wife and I are caretakers for our second rescued dog, who wants nothing more than to have food and water, a little affection, and a daily walk (now!). He is old, feeble, unable to climb stairs, blind in at least one eye, nearly deaf, and the sweetest, happiest and least demanding member of our family.

A dog’s welfare matters deeply to everyone who has played with, cuddled with or simply enjoyed the company of a four-legged friend. No wonder animal welfare has been such a hot issue for so long.