Local shelter closing, dooming pets? No way

Talk about news getting twisted until it loses the truth: No animals face death today because of the closing of a Montgomery County Animal Shelter.

Apparently, the rumor has rushed around the Internet, through Facebook and Twitter, that such a tale of woe is playing out in Pennsylvania.

Or is it Montgomery Township, N.J.?

Actually, it's neither. A shelter's closing in Montgomery County, Texas, but don't worry about the animals - they've all been adopted.

The Philadelphia area does have a Montgomery County SPCA, which has three shelters.

But they're staying open. In fact, on Monday the nonprofit celebrated its 100th anniversary at the Ambler County Club.

The phone lines have been so swamped because of the rumors, though, that a handful of helpers have been fielding countless calls from the public.

"We really appreciate that people are concerned, but we're alive and well, and our animals are doing well, and the populations are down in our kennels, and we have an extremely high adoption rate," said executive director Carmen Ronio this morning.

Montgomery County, Texas, does have a Humane Society that had to move out of its shelter building because a contract ran out with the local town.

But all of its remaining animals were adopted on Saturday, according to a news release dated Sept. 21 on the society's website, www.hsmc-tx.org/news.php.

"The Humane Society of Montgomery County [Texas] wants to thank the volunteers, donors, employees, rescue groups and most importantly the hundreds of people who showed up during the past week to ensure all the adoptable animals in HSMC's care found new forever homes," the statement begins.

"We could not be happier with how well the public responded to our call for homes for our cats and dogs," president Kathy Scoles is quoted as saying.

"On Saturday when HSMC opened its doors for the final adoptions, there was such a huge turnout and the remaining animals were adopted very quickly. We had to turn people away and refer them to other rescue groups and shelters," the statement continues.

As to the future, "everything is in limbo," said board member Ruth Pewitt by phone this morning.

Perhaps a new fixed location will be found - with or without a shelter - or maybe the next effort will be a mobile spay/neuter unit, she said.