One Sheriff’s Department Fights Crime And Saves Unwanted Dogs

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Some Webster County law enforcement are doing double duty.

Deputies fight crime, but they’re also giving some neglected dogs a second chance.

The county lacks an animal shelter and an animal control officer, and a high number of calls has the sheriff’s department filling that gap.

The department’s kennel program has been up and going for half a year.

Since then, they’ve taken in dozens of dogs and given many of them better futures.

They currently house almost twenty dogs in kennels at the sheriff’s department.

When you pull up at the Webster County Sheriff’s Department, Toughy, the unofficial jail mascot, will greet you at the door.

He’s one of the dozen dogs taken in by the sheriff’s department.

“Initially, Sheriff Mitchell, he’s got a huge heart for animals, so he’s always been involved in that in some point and of course, after we hired Mrs. McTaggart in the jail, she took it upon herself and really stepped up and made the program grow to what it is right now,” says Webster County Chief Deputy Jeff Mann.

Shanna McTaggart works as a jailer and makes up for the county’s lack of an animal control officer.

She volunteers to go out on dog calls that ring into the sheriff’s department.

“We are not a shelter. If you have a dog that you can no longer take care of, you need to take it to Starkville or Ackerman, for a small fee, they’ll take in your dog. We pick up strays, problematic dogs that are out in the county causing havoc. I mean, they’re tearing up garbage, they’re tearing up property, they’re a nuisance.”

“I go and I locate the dog and I pick it up and I bring it in. A general health assessment is done and they are dewormed and vaccinated and then I call local kennels and try to find a placement for it,” says Shanna McTaggart.

The sheriff’s department says there’s a big problem with people dumping and abandoning dogs throughout Webster County.

“Some of them are in fair condition, but most of them are skinny. Most of them need to be fed. Most of them we can’t take to a shelter or adopt out right away, because they’re too thin and we’ve got to feed them,” says McTaggart.

Without the department’s program and a few animal lovers helping out, there’s nothing else the county has for unwanted pups and that lack could turn into animal abuse.

“If we find people abusing animals, you know, we’re going to press charges. Same thing goes for dumping animals on the side of the roads. I mean, we’re not going to put up with that, you know, they can call us and we can work it out, get them to a shelter if we can’t take them, or you know, there’s something that can be done,” says Mann.

The department’s program runs off of donated materials and takes any material donations, including dog food and medical supplies.

The dogs are available for adoption after a general assessment is done.

The department says surrounding shelters have been a huge help.