Group takes 40 dogs from Arkansas shelter at owner's request

After her animal shelter fell into disrepair while she cared for her ailing brother, Shana Garner watched as the Humane Society of Missouri took 40 dogs away Tuesday morning.

Garner, the owner of Shana’s Last Chance Dog Rescue at 2724 Oliver Springs Road in Van Buren, said she felt it was best to have the animal service come retrieve the dogs. She said she needed time to update the shelter, including disinfecting certain areas and upgrading the dogs’ pen, in the hopes of again being able to take in animals.

“I’m just going to try and start all over with a clean slate,” she said.

The people who took care of the shelter while she cared for her brother, who died last year, purposefully neglected the shelter in an effort to extort money from her, Garner said.

“They purposefully sabotaged it,” she said, adding that some of the shelter’s volunteers wrote affidavits supporting her claim.

The shelter is Garner’s full-time job. She used to live on-site before moving to her brother’s house that’s only a block away. She’s been rescuing pets for 25 years and said her shelter being the only one in Crawford County.

Garner was glad the humane society came to pick up the dogs. She said all the other pounds in the area would kill unadopted dogs after five days. She first contacted the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which sent the group from Missouri.

“I’ve got to get this thing opened back up,” she said.

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