By Miles Layton

WINDSOR — A wave of social media criticism over animal shelter practices brought a decades-old county ordinance under scrutiny Monday night (March 2, 2026), as the Bertie County Board of Commissioners heard a detailed explanation from Animal Control Officer Skip Dunlow about holding periods, euthanasia decisions and space limitations at the county facility.

At the center of the discussion was confusion over whether dogs at the county shelter are now limited to a 10-day stay before euthanasia. Dunlow told commissioners the suggestion to move to a 10-day holding period was not a new mandate and did not originate with County Manager Juan Vaughan II.

Dunlow began, “I know when you saw something about animal control, you’ve been, ‘Oh my God, here we go again.’ All our county manager, Mr. Vaughan, asked me, due to a recent decision we made, which would — let me just say right now that it’s nothing new.”

He said the issue had been “taken by the public as some new law that we’ve came up with that was completely irrelevant to anything, nobody had ever heard of. That’s not true. It’s the same thing that it’s been. I’ve been doing this 19 years and it’s the same law that’s been. Basically, this is what it is.”

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State law vs. county ordinance

Dunlow explained that North Carolina law requires shelters to hold stray dogs for 72 hours, while Bertie County’s local ordinance — adopted in 1982 — requires a five-day holding period.

“State law says you have to hold a cat or a dog 72 hours,” he said. “The county ordinance, which was adopted and made in 1982, says five days.”

When he and Vaughan discussed operations at the shelter, Dunlow said he raised the possibility of extending the hold time to 10 days.

“When Mr. Vaughan and I were talking, I said, you know, in order to serve the public and to keep their flow — we only have 10 runs, as y’all know, and we’re talking about getting a new shelter. But when you only got 10 runs, you’ve got limited space. And see, when you only got 10 runs, you have to turn around.”

He added, “All I said was, instead of five days, Mr. Vaughan, I say we double it. I said that 15 years ago to Greg Atkins (former sheriff), you know, double it and do it 10 days.”

Commission Chair Corey Ballance Sr. pressed for clarity.

“Just for clarity, you said the state ordinance was three days?” Ballance asked.

“That’s right,” Dunlow replied.

“You said the county ordinance presently is five days, right? And you have — you’re the county manager, you all decided to go 10 days?”

“Just as a, basically as a suggestion,” Dunlow said. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

Ballance then asked the question he said the public needed answered directly.

“You’re saying three-day turnover, five-day turnover, 10-day turnover, but what is it you’re actually speaking of?”

Dunlow did not hesitate.

“Listen, the dog has to leave the facility one way or the other,” he said. “My side of it will be euthanasia to kill the dog.”

“That’s what I was after,” Ballance responded. “So they understand exactly what happens.”

Space constraints and public pressure

The shelter operates with 10 dog runs, two of which must remain open for quarantine cases involving bites. That effectively leaves eight working spaces.

“When you don’t have room at the facility, when calls come into dispatch, you got to tell Miss Jane, I can’t come right now due to — we’re full. I can’t come get your dog,” Dunlow said.

He described the tension that arises when calls go unanswered because of capacity limits.

“My head’s the one on the chopping block, is what I’m trying to get you to understand, because I’m trying to make it work, but you don’t have room to make it work,” he said. “When I’m at work, if 10 dogs come in, we need those dogs to go out, or I don’t have any space to work.”

Keeping animals longer means juggling limited space, he said.

“When you hang on to them, what it entailed was me holding court every week on whether Fido over here gets to stay or this one gets to stay or whether you have a transport for this one,” Dunlow said. “I shouldn’t — in my opinion, I shouldn’t have to go through all that. I should have a workspace provided.”

He told commissioners that what he needs most is policy backing.

“All I need for somebody to say is, ‘Skip, when you get full, don’t worry about it. I’ll handle the public,’” he said. “When they call you, Mr. Cory, and fussing with me, all I want you to do is call me and say, ‘Don’t worry about it, I told you that if the run’s full, you don’t have to worry about it.”’

Emotional toll of euthanasia

Dunlow also addressed accusations circulating online that he is quick to euthanize animals.

“I think people have the misconception that I’m Dr. Death or something, that I want to just kill everything. That’s not true,” he said. “For 19 years, I’ve had to be on that side of it, and that’s an emotional toll on you to have to euthanize that many animals. And people will take it that I guess that I get some type of joy or satisfaction out of it, which is not the case.”

He noted that euthanasia is a widespread reality in animal control work.

“The Humane Society of the United States say that they take in approximately, I think it’s like 8 million dogs a year, and half of them, 4 million, have to be euthanized,” he said.

He also made clear that the suggestion to consider a 10-day period did not originate with commissioners or the county manager.

“They were eating Mr. Vaughan up, and Mr. Vaughan was innocent,” Dunlow said. “He didn’t even — I was the one suggested it. The commissioners didn’t do it, nor did Mr. Vaughan. I want to make that clear.”

Relationship with the Humane Society

The local shelter facility is shared by county animal control and the nonprofit Roanoke-Chowan Humane Society, which operates under the name Bertie County Humane Society on social media.

Dunlow praised the nonprofit’s work but said the shared space creates congestion.

“The Humane Society has been a great asset to Bertie County. They have helped out tremendously,” he said. “But we are the only facility in Eastern North Carolina, I guess, that the Humane Society works out of the same facility as the county animal control.”

When the Humane Society first began operating at the shelter, he said he was optimistic.

“I was so excited about them coming because I said they’re going to be an asset and they’re going to help us,” he said. “Dr. Shelton said, well, are they going to have their own facility and their own entity to put their animals? And I said, no, they’re going to work out of our shelter. He said, it will not work. And I didn’t think he was right, but he was.”

“It will be so much better if they were separated,” Dunlow added, suggesting a new shelter might provide that opportunity in the future.

Legal concerns and ordinance rewrite

County Attorney Lloyd Smith told commissioners the core issue lies in the wording of the 1982 ordinance.

“I’ll have to admit, until recently, I had not read the dog ordinance because it’s probably the only ordinance that predates me in the county,” Smith said. “It was written in ’82.”

Smith said the language is confusing and legally risky.

“If you’ll look at Section 2, where it says notice to owner, it says immediately upon impounding a dog, the dog warden shall make a reasonable effort to notify the owner,” he said. “And then if the owner is unknown and cannot be located, a notice of such impoundment showing the time of impoundment shall be posted for five days or until the animal is disposed of, whichever is last. Now that really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

He warned that the wording could theoretically allow indefinite holding.

“Technically, under this ordinance, you can keep every dog that’s ever gone in there for 10 years if they live that long,” Smith said. “But the expense is dramatic.”

Smith said the county had already faced fines because of the ordinance’s lack of clarity.

“The county had to pay some in December because of unclarity in this,” he said. “The county needs to amend this ordinance. Whatever your will is, you need to set a definite time so Skip know what he’s supposed to do. And it is our responsibility, your responsibility, to give him that.”

He emphasized that commissioners can legally set any hold period of three days or more.

“Five is legal. You can’t do less than three. You can do as long as you want to out on the other side,” Smith said. “But you need to amend your ordinance.”

Next steps

Ballance said he would move the issue to a future work session for further discussion.

“I think you have really opened the eyes where people better get a better understanding of what takes place down there,” Ballance told Dunlow.

As the meeting concluded, Dunlow offered a candid assessment of the reality he faces.

“State inspector did say this morning to me, she said, Skip, you already know that you either going to be on the bad side one part. You can’t be on the good side of both,” he said. “Nobody’s going to be happy.”

For now, no formal 10-day policy has been adopted by the board. Commissioners are expected to revisit the ordinance language in an upcoming work session, where they will determine whether to retain the current five-day standard, extend it to 10 days, or set another defined period consistent with state law.