For the animals

Saving Simba

Rest assured, I grew up realizing boys can be rowdy boys.

Yet I cringe when reading stories like the one about Micaeleb Prather. He's the young man from West Fork who wound up sentenced to three months in jail, followed by five years of supervised probation and a psychiatric evaluation at his expense.

The judge laid the wrath of jurisprudence on Prather, 19, when convicting him of aggravated animal cruelty after Prather embedded an arrow in the head of Simba the housecat. Simba was found in southeast Fayetteville after suffering for days with the arrow in her skull. The lady who discovered her had been pet sitting with Simba while the owner was out of town. She notified authorities, who took the cat to the Fayetteville Animal Shelter where veterinarians removed the arrow and saved her life.

In the news account, Amy Driver, who prosecuted Prather, was quoted saying: "[The cat] had been that way for several days and was in excruciating pain. It's surprising the cat survived. It was a miraculous recovery. The people at the animal shelter did a great job."

About that valuable (yet financially strapped) shelter. I hereby rub behind the ears of Quorum Court members who voted 10-2 to move $10,500 from reserves to keep the facility viable over the next two months.

With more than $4 million in reserves, it was a relatively small amount for the county to cough up. In fact, the contribution could and should have been more, considering the facility needs just over $32,000 to finish the year without interruptions. The shelter's budget was cut by $35,000 over 2014 while the number of animals it received in the first six months of 2015 was up by 16 percent over the same period in 2014.

While I can understand the concerns of some justices of the peace who feel the need to draw a firm line on spending to preserve remaining reserves that have dwindled by about a third, the shelter nonetheless presents a legitimate public and moral need.

Don't believe me, just ask Simba, who's back home now because of it.

The $10,500 appropriation for now ensures the shelter operates as usual through the summer. I fully expect when those funds are depleted, the court again will vote to do the right thing by the people and strays of Washington County and appropriate what's necessary to keep it functioning properly. They certainly should do that. I suspect the majority of voters and taxpayers would want it.

Meanwhile, like others, I remain confused over why Washington County Judge Marilyn Edwards admittedly didn't follow up on the offer from the Animal League of Washington County to voluntarily continue collecting and providing funds to the county toward maintaining the shelter. That group generated and gave an impressive $40,000 toward the shelter between late 2012 and early 2014. Its members also offered to continue raising funds.

As Animal League President Teddy Cardwell told the Quorum Court, that was sufficient to have resolved the present shortfall concerns through 2015. However Cardwell said Edwards responded that the shelter needed to stand on its own two feet and she would contact the league if further assistance was needed. That call never came.

Cardwell said if asked the group would have continued fundraising and providing such funds for maintaining the shelter.

"I think all this maybe could have been avoided if nonprofits had been asked for help," Cardwell said at the meeting.

Sounds to me like Cardwell makes a valid point.

So how did Edwards respond, according to the thorough news account by reporter Dan Holtmeyer? "We haven't had a chance [to ask for assistance]," she said. As far as asking for help now, Edwards told the reporter: "I don't know right now. We will have discussions."

Discussions at this late date? What's to discuss?

Holtmeyer also quoted Joel Maxwell, a Republican justice of the peace for the western District 13, who encouraged voters and taxpayers to express their views on the shelter to Edwards. "That's a real puzzling question as to why we haven't taken them [the league] up on it," Maxwell said.

Well, Joel, I suppose it's because Her Honor apparently hasn't had the chance to ask for assistance and needs to have discussions before doing so which, as we all know in government, can take a very long time.

Booyah, Magnolia Rotary!

Thanks to the Rotarians of Magnolia for inviting me to speak to their active group and to businessman W. Derrell Rogers for his invitation and hospitalities. I'd failed to realize just how truly vibrant that community of 11,500 remains.

Although it was an 11-hour round trip to spend our lunch together, I was pleased to have made the trip and met so many fine Rotarians and valued readers. I left impressed by how and why Magnolia, with its spacious bustling square and scenic university, truly is one of our state's brightest flowers.

Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.

Editorial on 07/28/2015

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