Holmes dog warden seeks to highlight adoption partners

In a recent meeting with Holmes County Commissioners, Holmes County dog warden Jon Beam said his office is currently seeking to increase its adoption fee. Beam said aside from Wayne County, Holmes County’s fees are among the lowest in the state.

Beam said they are looking at charging $70 for adoption fees, which would be half the cost of preparing the dog for adoption outside of spaying or neutering procedures. Those other costs include the heartworm test, rabies vaccine and other vaccines.

As for the spay and neutering costs, Beam said the department works to have those costs sponsored by caring individuals and/or businesses that want to support the dog warden’s office in getting each animal into a loving home.

“We’re not out to make money on adoptions; we are here to get dogs into homes,” Beam said. “Right now we are at $52. But when we’re talking about $70, by the time someone comes in and leaves with an adoption, that’s not that bad.”

He said other counties present costs of anywhere from $150-$450 for adoption.

As a way of showing their gratitude toward their sponsors, Beam said the office is creating a Partners for Paws campaign where they highlight adoption sponsors.

Beam said the hope is donors will help cover the spay and neuter fee along with half of the adoption, noting it is good to have adoptees pay a portion of the fees to show their sincerity and commitment.

If anyone would like to become a dog adoption sponsor, they may do so by calling the office at 330-674-6301, stopping in at the office or reaching out on Facebook.

Beam then shared some other numbers from 2024.

Oddly, the number of complaints that came into the warden’s office concerning dogs in 2024 was 206, exactly the same number that was recorded in 2023.

However, Beam said the county warden’s office issued nearly double the number of citations they wrote this year.

Beam said of writing citations, “Any time there is a violation of the law, we write a citation, but typically, we like to give a warning first if we’ve never dealt with the individual before. If we give someone a warning and a month later we have the same problem, we’ll offer a citation.”

He said citations include dogs running at large, reported livestock kills, lack of registration tags and even animal cruelty, of which they received four reported cases this year.

In addition, he said they have had four new dogs registered as dangerous in 2024, bringing the overall total in the county to 18.

The county had 418 intakes in 2023 compared to 485 this year, with the major contributor to that being an increase in surrenders, many of which have come from kennels. Out of those 485 surrendered dogs, six of them were euthanized, something Beam said they work hard not to do if at all possible.

“We still have a list probably three or four pages long of people who are wanting to rehome their dogs,” Beam said. “There’s just not enough space for us to do that at this time.”

He did say the office was able to get 60 spay or neuters in this year, a number he was proud they achieved and one he noted was a record year for the dog warden’s office.

He said all donations in the month of January will go toward the spay and neutering program.

“The public wants that, and we want that,” Beam said.

The office also received 550 volunteer hours in 2024. Beam said they have set a goal of increasing that number to 700 hours in 2025.

“Our hope is to tackle the task of getting more consistent volunteers, and to do so, we are going to start a mentoring program,” Beam said.

That would consist of the several key contributors who show up to work with the dogs on a regular basis, working with newcomers who are interested in helping but aren’t sure how to begin.

“A lot of folks start with the orientation, and they walk back into the pen and all the dogs are barking, and it can get overwhelming,” Beam said. “We’re going to have a new person partner with somebody who has been doing it for a while.”

As for the coming year, Beam said they are working on a community outreach program with children in which they travel to communities and schools and deputize kids, in the process giving them a free ice cream cone voucher.

Beam said that is done to create education within the younger people in the county on how to be proactive in caring for dogs.