ORAN FAMILY COMPLAINS OF DOG'S DEATH

ORAN -- Reports that their 6-month-old puppy had been put to sleep on the very day Oran employees picked him up have led an Oran family to seek a state investigation into the way in which the town treats animals.

State statute requires that any healthy animal impounded by a city must be kept for five days to allow the rightful owners time to reclaim the animal. Then the animal may be disposed of either through adoption or euthanasia.

But the Nenninger family of Oran say city employees rushed to take their dog -- a mixed breed puppy named Junior -- to the Humane Society in Sikeston where they knew he would be destroyed.

Because of the way they say the case was handled by Oran officials, the Nenningers have contacted the Missouri Department of Agriculture with their complaint. The department said an investigator will be in Oran Thursday to investigate why the city did not hold the dog for the number of days the law requires.

The dog was picked up near the Oran school last Friday by Oran employees after a complaint was made to city hall by the school officials.

City Clerk Glenda Owen said a report had come from the school that the Nenningers' puppy and a number of other dogs were at the school bothering the children. City employees were dispatched to the school and told to pick up the dogs.

The dog did not have a tag on it indicating who owned it, despite a city ordinance which requires tags. The dog was also not on a leash, though another city ordinance requires that dogs be on leashes if they are off the owner's property. Both infractions the Nenningers admit.

About 3:30 that afternoon, the dog and five other dogs that were being kept in the Oran city pound were taken to the Sikeston-Bootheel Humane Society where they were euthanized, Owen said.

"We would've kept the dog (at the city pound) except we had five dogs that needed to be transported to the Humane Society, plus it was a weekend and no one volunteered to come in and feed it," Owen said.

The Nenningers were not informed that their dog had been picked up because the dog did not have a tag and city employees didn't know who owned the dog.

An owner of the dog, Virginia Nenninger, said: "Half the dogs in town don't even have collars. Our dog did. It's only common sense that if the dog has a collar, he belongs to someone."

When her husband, Darrell, spoke to Marcy Roslen, the city collector, Friday night, she told him that he could pick the dog up in Sikeston. But when they went to Sikeston Saturday morning they were informed that the dog had already been put to sleep.

"I told him that he would probably have to pay a fine and pay for shots. I never thought he'd go down and not come back with his dog," Roslen said.

Ginna Young, president of the Sikeston-Bootheel Humane Society board, said Tuesday that the Humane Society operated with the understanding and belief that animals brought in to be euthanized have been held by the city of origin for the time that state statute requires.

The Sikeston facility contracts with municipalities, charging a nominal fee to the cities that bring dogs to them. The fee -- $5 per animal -- could not possibly cover the expense of keeping the animal for the five days required by state law, Young said.

Dorothy Morrison, of the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri in Cape Girardeau said that cities with holding facilities such as Oran are expected to comply with state laws and hold the animals for the number of days the law requires.

When the city has a holding facility, the Humane Society assumes the city is following state mandates, Morrison said.

The only exception to the holding rule is if the dog is injured or sick beyond recovery, in which case the animal may be humanely killed immediately, Morrison said.

In an attempt at reconciliation, the Sikeston-Bootheel Humane Society has offered to let the Nenningers select a puppy free of charge.