Henry Humane Society In Jeopardy

The Henry County Humane Soci­ety is expe­ri­enc­ing a severe finan­cial cri­sis, and peo­ple there say they could be on the verge of clos­ing their doors for­ever.

The shel­ter is seek­ing mon­e­tary assis­tance by send­ing requests to more than 600 area busi­nesses.

Oper­a­tions man­ager Diana Riefers says the humane soci­ety in Napoleon is strug­gling in the cur­rent eco­nomic cli­mate.

Until 2011, the ani­mal shel­ter was under con­tract with the Henry County com­mis­sion­ers and dog war­den to receive a share of the county’s dog license rev­enue.

When the dog war­den relo­cated, that con­tract was ter­mi­nated, a change that resulted in a loss of roughly $24,000 annu­ally.

The shel­ter receives no other state or local aid, and is cur­rently funded entirely by dona­tions, and through its own fundrais­ing efforts.

The build­ing and appli­ances at the shel­ter have prob­lems, the roof needs replace­ment, and out­dated light­ing raises energy costs.

Esti­mates are that the shel­ter costs about $120,000 annu­ally to oper­ate.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Henry County Humane Soci­ety, includ­ing hours of oper­a­tion and dates and times of fundrais­ing events, visit www.henryhumane.org