ASHLAND — The Ashland County Dog Shelter’s kennel manager resigned Tuesday.
The Ashland County commissioners unanimously approved Megan Vaught’s resignation following an executive session on Tuesday. Her resignation is effective immediately.
Commissioner clerk Nikki Hiller said Vaught did not submit a resignation letter. Hiller said it was verbal.
Vaught was not immediately available for comment.
Commissioner Jim Justice said he was not surprised by the resignation. He said the dog shelter hopes to replace the position by hiring someone internally, possibly by later this week.
The position has not been advertised, he said.
“I think it’s somebody that works there (who will fill the position),” Justice said. “But I won’t know for sure until the Thursday meeting.”
The commissioners will meet during a regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Jan. 25.
Vaught worked in the manager position at the shelter for a little over a year, said Joe Eggerton, the dog warden.
When asked if she said why she resigned, he said all those details were discussed during Tuesday morning’s executive session.
“She just said she was stressed,” Eggerton said. “And that’s totally understandable.”
He said she had mentioned she was looking for another job. When she vocalized that, he began lining up an employee for the possible replacement.
“We wanted somebody who already has experience with how we do things and who’s familiar with our dogs. We just want to keep things moving smoothly so we can move these dogs,” he said.
Within the last week, the shelter has successfully adopted 13 dogs, possibly 14, Eggerton said.
The adoptions started happening because of the publicity — and scrutiny — surrounding the dog shelter following the commissioners’ passage of a controversial policy on euthanasia.
The policy, which has yet to be updated, states “dogs that have been at the shelter for more than one year will be euthanized.”
Residents’ outcry over the rule led commissioners to create a dog shelter advisory committee, put a freeze on adoption fees through the end of the month and promise to make specific changes.
Commissioners voted unanimously earlier Tuesday to officially appoint Dr. Laurie Mooney to the newly created Dog Shelter Advisory Committee. Her term length is still to be determined.
They also approved 2023 fourth quarter donations — $10,314 — to the dog shelter.