Rogers County has an animal control problem.

In municipalities across the county, issues and controversy regarding what to do with strays and unwanted animals rages on.

For example, in Verdigris’ Pond Creek neighbors are protesting the residential location of a privately run animal rescue organization. Catoosa has implemented an animal adoption policy through the city’s animal control department but finding homes for those dogs is not always easy and the city often turns to animal rescue groups for help.

Even our largest city has issues. Claremore faced a crisis when Tulsa quit accepting animals for euthanasia.

Perhaps worst of all, rural residents victimized by dog bites have little recourse beyond civil suits.

Virtually every small town in Rogers County has had its fair share of dealing with animal issues at one time or another.

Outside city limits, problems with strays, vicious animals, and unwanted dogs dumped in the countryside plagues the county. When citizens have asked the Rogers County Sheriff’s Department what to do, they have reportedly been told their only recourse is to shoot the animals. While those in housing additions are loathe to shoot even a threatening dog, ranchers protecting valuable stock have and do shoot wild or stray dogs.

Last year, Oologah Mayor Jerry Holland asked county commissioners for help, but the county’s hands are tied.

Counties with populations under 200,000 may not implement animal control according to state law. Attempts to modify that statute never made it out of committee.

Even amidst all of this controversy, nowhere have things grown more heated than in Inola, a town that tried, probably harder than most, to find a solution to the animal problem.

In 2006 Inola Mayor Cheryl Charles was dealing with a problem regarding approximately two dozen feral cats living in an abandoned house. In addition, the town’s animal control facility consisted of a couple of pens on city property near the sewer treatment lagoons. The limited town staff were not specially trained in animal control but did the best they could with Maintenance Supervisor Greg Boeckman taking most of the responsibility for the loose animals picked up and housed in the makeshift facility.

Charles and Boeckman said they wanted something better for the animals.

They called in Cynthia Armstrong of the Humane Society who drove to Inola and reported on guidelines and humane treatment to town trustees at one of the council meetings.

Charles hoped at that time to implement some sort of adoption policy. Most importantly, the town needed a real animal control facility.

In October of 2006, local volunteers offered to walk and help care for the dogs Boeckman picked up. Most times, those animals were pets who had gotten loose or lost and were recovered by their owners. The unfortunate few that were not claimed were taken to a shelter in Tulsa which either adopts them out or euthanizes them.