The Thomasville-Thomas County Humane Society will perform animal control communitywide until Dec. 31.

Thomas County commissioners voted 6-2 in a called Tuesday morning meeting to pay the Humane Society $272,499.99 for animal control for the remainder of the year.

By midyear, commissioners will decide whether to negotiate with the Humane Society for continued animal control in 2012, or establish a county government animal control program.

Commissioners Phillip Brown and Moses Gross voted nay Tuesday.

Gross said he did not know how he would face county employees, who have not received raises in recent years, if the board approved more funding for the Humane Society.

Humane Society officials requested $329,000 for 2011 operations. Commissioners approved $247,000, and the Humane Society said it would not contract with county government for animal control after Dec. 31, 2010.

The Humane Society extended the contract until March 31, as negotiations continued. Last week’s proposal by the Humane Society was $267,000 for the remainder of this year.

“The $267,000 takes it back to what the budget was in 2008,” said Elaine Mays, commission chairman.

“I appreciate the gracious offer to maintain it for the remainder of the year,” commission Vice Chairman Louis Rehberg said at the Tuesday meeting. Meanwhile, he said, county government can take steps necessary to take over animal control.

The Humane Society’s mission is rescue and adoption, while county government’s concerns are public health and safety, Rehberg said. “That’s all we have to deal with,” he added.

Rehberg said that in his “wildest imagination,” he did not see how animal control would need more than three people.

Ed Williams, Humane Society executive director, agreed the Humane Society and county government have different missions, but he thinks they can be complementary missions.

Williams pointed out that the organization paid for an animal control truck with private donations. In recent years, animal control has been subsidized with private funding.

“There are more pressing things than animal control,” Rehberg said.

In Grady County, the commissioner said, animal control consists of two officers and “a truck with a cage on the back.”

  Commissioner Hershel Ansley said that of 10 people he polled from his district, eight said “forget it,” and others said a limit should be put on what is spent on animal control.

Commissioner Merrill Baker said people he has talked to in his district do not want county government to take over animal control.

 Mike Stephenson, county manager, said county government has no place to put animals and no veterinarian to euthanize animals.

It will have to be decided in May or June if the county will take over animal control in 2012, the county manager told commissioners, adding that it is not a decision that can wait until November or December.

Commissioner Ken Hickey said that if the county takes over animal control, it will need the cooperation of the Humane Society in the adoption process of some animals.

Jerry Henderson, founder of the Miss Kitty Feline Sanctuary in Thomasville, told commissioners the adoption process amounts to an appreciable expense.

“The business of adopting animals is not a profit center,” Henderson told the board.

Pointing out that thousands of dogs and cats are euthanized in Thomas County annually, Stephenson said that speaking from a personal standpoint, he sees the current animal control situation as an opportunity to see “the real problem.”

The community should focus on reducing the number of unwanted animals, he said.

“And spay and neuter is the answer,” the commission chairman said.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820.