T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK The Belmont County Animal Shelter is packed with dogs on any given day, and the commissioners have begun hiring assistant dog wardens to meet the need.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Two new full-time assistant dog wardens are now working for the Belmont County Animal Shelter.

Each new assistant is paid about $12 per hour, and the commissioners are looking to hire assistant dog wardens from the current kennel staff. The county commissioners said the increased demands on the shelter created the need for staff members who are able to go out on calls and share in the dog warden’s other duties.

Dog Warden Lisa Williams said the shelter is seeing an increase in demands across the board, as well as an increase in population.

“Our county’s bigger now, with gas and oil people. It’s a must. We’re always busy. There’s always something out there. … More emergency calls, people dumping dogs on the road, strays running loose, people letting their dogs run loose, bites. That’s all the stuff that we handle.”

Currently, Williams has two assistant dog wardens with the goal of three.

“We’re still looking for a third one,” Williams said. “It would be nice to even get back to where we were 18 years ago, with three assistant wardens. The county was smaller then, and you can’t run one or two people for a whole county.

“Back in the day, we didn’t have as many complaints. We didn’t have as many dogs. Now at any given day we could get one dog. We could get seven dogs,” she said.

“It’s a big county to begin with, and we have a lot of gas and oil people. We have dogs out of state, they may not reside here full time. We have some gas and oil dogs that do, so we have to deal with their issues. I don’t know how many gas and oil people are in this county, but I know there’s a lot,” she said.

“The assistant dog warden has to do everything from cleaning to answering phones, collecting donations, dog warden complaints, you have to be able to do it all.

“Every day is a busy day. We may only have two complaints one day, we may have six the next day. We also help out the sheriff’s department with humane calls,” she said. “We’ve been trying to work with them to help them pick up dogs and get them to the vets.”

As of the middle of last week, the shelter housed 55 dogs, with 20 housed at the Belmont Correctional Institution, and 36 cats. Williams said that number is subject to change as more dogs are taken in or adopted.

“We have a lot more owners’ dogs coming in. People are moving and can’t afford them or just want rid of them,” she said.

She said the shelter’s capacity is about 40.

“That’s what it should be. We have dogs that can’t stay in the kennel because of stress. We have some that live in the office here. Every room pretty much has a dog in it,” she said, adding that pit bulls form a significant percentage of the shelter population.

“We get pit bulls every week, and they’re harder to place,” she said.

Williams would not speculate on whether the need might increase during the coming winter months.

She added that the shelter is able to accept cats on a limited basis. It works with Belmont County Cat-Stray-Shun program.

“We have a waiting list for people to get their cats in, because we are at full capacity. When one leaves, we call another person on the list and they bring their cat in,” she said.

For more information or to donate, call 740-695-4708.