ELDON, Mo. -- Nothing's changed -- that's what animal rescue operations in this town just north of Lake of the Ozarks say, after the city promised to fix its pound. We first told you about the problems in Eldon last month.
The chief complaint by the rescue organizations was the city kept its pound closed most times, didn't have a working phone, and wasn't up to code according to the Department of Agriculture. Two police officers were also accused of animal abuse. A month later, the complaints remain.
"It's cold in there, it gets real cold in there," said Mary Isaac.
Cold is exactly how Isaac describes the city of Eldon's attitude.
"All of us organizations, we don't want to fight with the city. We just want them to do their job," Isaac said on Friday.
We first met her last month, a ways down the city pound road on the other side of a cable. Friday, that cable was gone, and we were able to drive right up to the facility that's been empty for weeks.
"A lot of people put in a lot of work and private money to get these animals out of here so they could do what they needed to do," she said, like make repairs, such as to the ventilation system, which Isaac says were supposed to be done January 31.
"What we were hoping to see is that the facility would be updated to what the state requires. 20 foot runs were going to be put in, the floor was going to be sandblasted, new fencing was donated out of Jefferson City."
Isaac says the city missed a Department of Agriculture deadline. We went to the city to ask why and were told the mayor is the only one who can comment and he was out and the deadline wasn't set in stone.
Back at the pound, we were confronted by two city employees.
"What are we doing?" a woman who identified herself as the assistant city administrator asked.
"A story on the animal shelter." I responded. "Are you with the city?"
"I am with the city, and why wasn't the city contacted?"
"The city was contacted, like several times. I called four times, showed up in person," I said.
The pair asked Isaac and me to leave to city property.
"Are you done now?" she asked.
"About done," I replied.
"About done means let's go," the man said.
"So we can't be on the public property?" I asked them.
"Well it is after closing time," he said.
"Isn't it closed all the time right now?" I responded.
"Well, yes," he said.
Isaac says she never wanted a confrontation; she just wanted answers.
"If you had done your job, we wouldn't have had to bring this up again, but we're going to follow through because we love these animals," she said.
The mayor called me back on Friday evening, but I missed his call, When I returned it, I had to leave a voicemail. I wanted to ask him about missing funds that Isaac and other rescues say were raised last year to expand the pound's cat room. They say that money was never used for that purpose.
As far as the animal abuse allegations against city police officers, that's still being investigated by the Highway Patrol. Isaac is starting her own animal rescue in nearby Rocky Mount.
