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A legal conflict between Belmont County commissioners and the county's humane society has been resolved.
On Wednesday, commissioners directed the county Prosecutor Dan Fry to dismiss litigation authorized Nov. 20 against the Belmont County Humane Society. The issue was whether a donation to help the area's animals should have benefited cats or dogs.
The commissioners voted two to one to drop the litigation, with Josh Meyer and newly-elected Jerry Echemann in favor and J.P. Dutton as the dissenting vote.
The lawsuit involved a donation of $30,000 from American Electric Power made in December of 2016.
Meyer had voted against pursuing litigation in November. Meyer and Echemann had no comment, but Dutton delivered a statement during the meeting.
"I wanted to voice my extreme displeasure and frustration," Dutton said. "I think our board did everything we could to kind of impress upon the humane society our desire to see a donation of $30,000 that was made a couple of years ago, intended to be used at the time for kennels at the animal shelter. That didn't come to fruition. The humane society decided not to take that project on."
Dutton said the commissioners were informed by the humane society in late 2017 or early 2018 that the funds would be used for the care of cats, because the county was no longer caring for cats.
"That could not be further from the truth," Dutton said, adding that about a year and a half ago the county closed the shelter to cats due to overcrowding. Dutton said the county had no other option at the time, pointing out that the shelter's space for cats was fit for 32 of the animals.
"At the time, we had approaching 70 cats in the animal shelter. You can't imagine the disease that can spread when you're overpopulated like that, or even the stress on the animals."
He added that many of the cats were not ready to be adopted at that point, needing vaccines and other treatment.
"We closed the doors until we could get things under control, which we did," Dutton said.
Dutton added that the county has since begun working with a non-profit spay/neuter program and seeking to adopt out the cats, and that the cat space at the shelter is now at capacity with about 32 of the animals housed, and with new cats being accepted when space was available.
Angela Hatfield, who directed the shelter at the time of the donation, could not be reached for comment.