To the Editor,

The person who wrote the Letter to the Editor about the sheltering of animals in Beaufort County most obviously does not know what he is talking about.

First of all, there truly is no such thing as a “No Kill” shelter in today’s society. The places that call themselves “no kill,” no matter how large, have a limited capacity and once that limit is reached, they turn the animals away for another place to end up killing them.

Here in Beaufort County, we have an outstanding animal shelter, thanks to a lady by the name of Betsy Bailey Nelson whose estate paid for 75 percent of it. We have a super-dedicated group of over 60 volunteers who, by the end of April, had already spent some 625.5 hours volunteering at the shelter. These folks are dedicated to caring for the animals in every way possible including super efforts in getting animals adopted and rescued.

As of today, May 7, a total of 540 animals have been taken in. So far, 238 dogs and 130 cats have been adopted or rescued and 38 animals have been reclaimed by their owners. This leaves 134 animals, and of those, 36 are currently housed at the shelter.

This represents a roughly 82-percent rate of animals leaving the shelter alive.

We are very proud of what we do at the shelter and very grateful of the sometimes extreme efforts made by the shelter staff and our volunteers to take care of the animals and to get them into forever homes. Rather than criticize, without knowing what is really being done, how about coming out to help?

The Humane Society of Beaufort County works very closely with the shelter and has spent thousands of dollars to provide needed improvements at the shelter. For many years we have emphasized the need for spaying and neutering animals to reduce the production of so many unwanted kittens and puppies. There is an annual reduced rate campaign every February that all three animal hospitals are involved in. Throughout the year, the Humane Society offers financial assistance to get the job done as well.

Margaret J. Petersen

Animal shelter volunteer coordinator and vice president of the Humane Society of Beaufort County

Washington