Town to get kennels for strays

Published 8:36 pm Wednesday, November 19, 2008

THORSBY – The Thorsby Police Department is having trouble with dogs escaping from its temporary pound.

So much so, Police Chief Ed Prady brought the issue to the Town Council Monday night. The dogs are escaping the fenced area where the police keep stray dogs until they can be picked up by the Chilton County Humane Society.

“They’re either climbing the fence or digging under the fence,” he said. “We’ve had one dog that we’ve had to recapture two times already.”

Prady proposed fixing two dog kennels for the captured dogs inside the current area. The fence would remain so it would be easier to corral the dogs if they got loose while they were putting them in the pen.

“It’s kind of like what happens at the county jail when you have to transport a prisoner, except this is with animals,” he said. “A van can drive inside of a fence, and the dog can be taken from the kennel to the van. If he gets loose, he is a lot easier to track down inside of the fence instead of having to run him down on Highway 31.”

The cost of purchasing the kennels would be around $270, but Prady said it would solve the problem by preventing the dogs from escaping.

Instead of buying kennels, the council proposed purchasing the equipment for the town to build its own kennels for the dogs, and it could possibly be cheaper.

Prady will look into the cost of each option, and the council gave him the approval to take the most economical route to solve the problem.