Farm critters get more room at shelter

Tri-county facility opens livestock barn

Friday, July 4, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JOANY NAZDIN Max, a potbellied pig, has a new barn to enjoy while awaiting adoption at the Tri-County Animal Shelter in Hughesville. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

‘‘We only had a three-stall barn when I first started working here,” Stephens said. ‘‘It was open to the air, no roof, no water and no electricity. We started getting more and more livestock and had nowhere to put them. For a while, we had eight pot-bellied pigs.”

Stephens said at one time pot-bellied pigs were quite fashionable, but when they start to tip the scale at 200 pounds or more they are no longer desirable as house pets. That is when a lot of pigs began to find themselves at the animal shelter.

Scrappy and Max are two of the three pigs currently in residence at the animal shelter in Hughesville; they have been there since May.

‘‘It is very hard to place a pig,” Stephens said. ‘‘You need a lot of skill to take care of them.”

Linda Kelley, one of the commissioners in Calvert County, works with the Pig Placement Network to assist the shelter by placing pigs in private homes and animal sanctuaries.

‘‘Kelley has the knowledge and the willingness to take care of them,” Stephens said. ‘‘An adopted pig may not necessarily be placed in Maryland. There is an entire network up and down the East Coast that exists to assist in pig placement.”

All three Southern Maryland counties funded the barn.

Stephens runs an essay contest each year for third- through fifth-graders in the tri-county area and the commissioners come out every year for the awards ceremony.

The topic this year was ‘‘Why should you adopt from an animal shelter, instead of a breeder, or a puppy mill?”

When the commissioners came out, the livestock barn was full of animals. That is when the commissioners decided the shelter needed a bigger barn. The barn was placed in the budget for all three counties in July 2007.

Charles County Commissioner Reuben B. Collins II (D) was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

‘‘This project was long overdue,” Collins said. ‘‘It was mostly Calvert County Commissioner Linda Kelley that lobbied for the new barn, but it is important and necessary to all of us.”

The barn was designed by the Charles County Department of Public Facilities and used the existing three-stall barn as a starting point. The grant was for $45,000, but the barn cost $30,000.

‘‘We used the extra money to run air-conditioning to one of the kennels,” Stephens said. ‘‘One of our vets said that the more the air circulates, the less chance there is for the spread of air-borne respiratory diseases.”

Mammals aren’t the only animals that end up at the shelter.

‘‘We get geese, chickens and ducks,” Stephens said. ‘‘We have had a six-foot boa constrictor.”

Stephens even had a tiger cub one time, which had to be sent back to the breeder in the Carolinas.

‘‘The tiger cub was only 4 months old, and already weighed 50 to 60 pounds,” Stephens said. ‘‘It was exhibiting the typical tiger stalking⁄pouncing behavior. It is illegal to have tigers in Maryland. That is why we sent him back to Carolina, where there is no law against keeping tigers.”

Emus are another kind of animal that will make use of the livestock barn. Emus are large flightless birds, which were also the focus of a fad a few years ago.

‘‘We get a lot of emus,” Stephens said, ‘‘but people are more willing to adopt them. For some reason we also get a lot of goats, and last year someone brought in a pony.”

Stephens has already made out her next wish list.

‘‘Every nook and cranny here is filled with animals,” Stephens said. ‘‘I would love to have a small room so we can do behavior assessments when the animals are brought in. Coming here for the animals is so overwhelming. We can’t properly place an animal until we determine if they would make a good companion animal.”

‘‘I also wish people would spay and neuter their pets,” Stephens said. ‘‘If people can’t afford it, we can refer them to a low-cost spay and neuter program.”

Stephens spoke of the animals she has waiting for homes.

‘‘Come adopt,” Stephens said.”Many people don’t realize how many purebreds we have here.”