Chaos at Local Animal Shelter

LANCASTER, CO., S.C. – All locked up at the Lancaster County Animal Shelter Thursday: the gates closed, padlocked, an empty parking lot. All to be seen was one dog, peering out from behind the wire window in his cinder block dog run.

It was much busier Wednesday, after word spread quickly on social media that the shelter was temporarily closing down, and the animals needed to be adopted quickly. Rescuers showed up in force, pulling dogs, cats, even newborn kittens.

“Our mission is to save every single one of them,” says Doris Macomson, the president of Ozzie To The Rescue.

Why the shelter is in limbo is unclear. The Lancaster County Administrator confirms allegations were made against a shelter employee. Steve Willis says, “The allegations were of a nature that we had to refer the matter to law enforcement for investigation.”

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) is now involved and the employee in question, who has not been named, is on paid leave. The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office sent over animal control officers to care for the animals in the interim.

Rumors of mass euthanasia at the shelter are untrue, and not possible, says Willis, because of how those euthanasia drugs are stored. He says, “The employee that has the combination to the safe doesn’t have the keys. I have the keys, I don’t have a combination to the safe and the animal control officers have neither. So absolutely no euthanasia is going on whatsoever.”

As for the locked gates? Willis says he hopes to have someone working at the shelter full-time by Monday so they can adopt out more animals. They are waiving adoption fees for rescue groups. Macomson says, “That is our plan, (to get) people to come and pull the dogs and cats, (to) keep from any having to be euthanized.”

WCCB Charlotte has submitted an open records request to the Lancaster County administrator for access to the shelter’s record keeping. Under South Carolina law, he has 15 business days to respond.