Duke’s Animal Haven off Stamey Cove Road in Waynesville has suddenly closed its animal rescue facility with little explanation.

Jackson County’s proposed $62.5 million budget for 2016-17 doesn’t include a tax increase, but it sets the stage for a $12 million upgrade to county facilities over the next five years.

From softball fields to health buildings to animal shelters, funding requests have been arriving hot and heavy to the Jackson County Commissioners’ desks as budget season heats up. As the deadline for the 2017-18 budget draws nearer, the pressure to make tough decisions about what gets funded and what doesn’t is increasing.

A large-scale rescue effort involving multiple animal welfare agencies resulted in the removal of more than 400 animals from a puppy mill in Clarkesville, Georgia, last week.

In a case that stunned Western North Carolina residents last November, 137 dogs were found being kept in varying states of neglect on a property outside the town of Canton. 

After serving as an ad-hoc temporary animal shelter, the old Lea Industries building on Lea Plant Road in Hazelwood is once again empty and silent. 

Haywood County officials and volunteers continue to minister to the needs of 140 — and counting — dogs removed from a property on Terrace Drive in Canton over the weekend. 

Dr. Kristen Hammett had just left the current Haywood County Animal Shelter when she appeared before the Haywood County Board of Commissioners Sept. 6, clad in her familiar teal T-shirt emblazoned with the Friends of the Haywood County Animal Shelter logo.

A newly purchased cargo van has animal advocates in Jackson County applauding — and rolling up their sleeves to load dogs and cats for travel toward pastures green with adoptive families and no-kill shelters.

It’s been more than a year since the Swain County commissioners charged a newly formed ad hoc committee with tackling a longstanding controversial issue — the county’s lack of animal control.