Emails show police chief, city aware of Henderson animal shelter issues

Henderson’s police chief was aware of the Henderson animal shelter’s needs for staffing and repairs as early as January 2023, and shelter volunteers reached out directly to a member of the City Council six months later, according to recently obtained city emails.

Emails between city leadership and personnel from the Henderson Animal Care and Control showed communications between shelter director Danielle Harney, shelter volunteers, city staffers, Police Chief Hollie Chadwick and City Councilwoman Carrie Cox.

Communications between Chadwick and Harney showed that the police chief knew about the shelter’s needs in late January when she was helping Harney outline the shelter’s needs for a report to the city.

Chadwick wrote in an email to Harney on Jan. 22 that she “can’t believe all the things that haven’t been done for this part of our department,” and that she felt “disheartened” reading the report.

‘The city has dodged several bullets’

Former shelter volunteer Scott McIntyre also highlighted some of the shelter’s needs when he and several other volunteers spoke at two Henderson City Council meetings in April and November.

He sent his list of the concerns to a city staffer and later forwarded that email to Henderson City Councilwoman Carrie Cox in June.

In a message forwarded to Cox, McIntyre highlighted a need for more staff, saying the plexiglass covering on the kennels needed to be remove. He also pointed out that floors were slippery, and that there was a need for more kennel space, and proper covering on the top of kennels designated for dangerous dogs, among other concerns.

Cox spoke with McIntyre in late July, and he also forwarded three emails to Cox and Assistant City Manager Jim McIntosh detailing incidents with shelter dogs.

In one of those emails to Cox and McIntosh, McIntyre wrote “the city has dodged several bullets that could have been resulted in workers and/or animals being attacked.”

McIntyre said in a later email that he and Tim Tyler “shut down the volunteer program to new volunteers as neither of us in good conscience are going to bring people in to witness stuff like this.”

Shelter volunteer Kenni Burdette sent several messages to city staffers last year trying to implement two improvements to Henderson Animal Care and Control: installing a donated tent structure in the shelter’s courtyard and installing a safety fence barrier in front of the dog kennels.

Burdette wrote in a June 21 email to Assistant City Manager Robert Herr that the shelter’s facilities personnel rejected the tent structure proposal, saying that “they don’t understand how it can be installed, and other concerns, too,” and that they talked about other possible options for shading.

The message ended with “my plight for the safety fence on adoption row isn’t over.”

Burdette sent a proposal from Scott Burdette, president and managing member of Strategic Development Partners, LLC., to shelter director Danielle Harney on June 1.

The proposal suggested replacing the plexiglass front of the dog kennels with a safety fence at no cost to the city.

Burdette also spoke with Cox and McIntyre about their concerns for the shelter, according to an email from Burdette in late July.

In that message, she recapped their conversation, and ended with a warning to the councilwoman about her and McIntyre’s efforts, saying: “If we can’t make any headway, see true timelines scheduled, or we or our donors are met with resistance, we will have no choice but to turn our efforts to other needs outside the Henderson Animal Shelter.”

By November, Henderson Animal Care and Control Director Danielle Harney said, the city hired a third party consulting firm to assess the shelter’s needs, a move that some volunteers criticized.

Harney said the shelter expected the assessment to finish last year and to present the results to in January.

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Instagram @writermark2.