51黑料

Matt Rold, a manager in the Missouri Department of Agriculture division that inspects shelters, said the state has done it with other noncompliant facilities in years past.

But he said he hopes it doesn鈥檛 come to that.

鈥淲e hope that 51黑料 County gets into compliance so that we can have a good working relationship going forward,鈥� Rold said.

Rold was being questioned by the council at a Thursday hearing as it sought to understand how the county animal shelter failed to obtain a license to run the facility.

The council also questioned Olivia Bennett, a shelter inspector with the state. She said once the county asks for a new inspection, it will have 90 days and three possible inspections to obtain a license. The first inspection is set for June 30, Rold said.

The hearing was the second in recent weeks where the council tried to understand what went wrong at the shelter after the Animal Protective Association, which ran the shelter for two years, departed in February. The APA was lauded for cleaning up the facility and boosting adoptions. But in August, the nonprofit said it accomplished its mission and would withdraw from the county contract, three years before it was set to expire. Records later showed its departure also stemmed from the county rejecting APA invoices for items such as meals, team outings and dog training.

In April and early May, an outbreak of parvovirus led to the euthanasia of 19 dogs. The shelter鈥檚 veterinary director resigned shortly after.

In mid-May, the state of Missouri rejected the animal shelter鈥檚 application for a license, required by law to operate, after the shelter failed three state inspections since February. The state cited violations for holding dogs in cages too small for them, failing to clean up feces in play yards and allowing bugs in food storage areas, among other problems.

The council called a hearing about the problems in late May, where health department director Dr. Kanika Cunningham said the county鈥檚 human resources department has opened an investigation into the outbreak and euthanasia. But some council members were frustrated with a lack of detail from Cunningham and other staffers at the hearing.

Last week, the council voted to subpoena 11 people, including Cunningham, to compel them to testify about problems at the shelter.

The council doesn鈥檛 have the power to discipline or fire anyone at the shelter.

The county announced Thursday it had opened a shelter foster program to the public. More information is available on the county鈥檚 website at .