A new humane society group has formed in Polk County. SHARP, Safe Haven Animal Rescue Program, has met several times with the goal of creating a low-kill animal shelter for Polk County. The county currently has no humane society or animal shelter and the group intends to ask county commissioners for help at the next commission meeting.

At a meeting Monday morning, around 20 members of the newly formed group met to discuss the need for a shelter. Michele Novotny, spokesperson for the group, said she hoped the group could help offer the citizens of the county some of the advantages larger communities have. She said she wanted to emphasize how much the county was growing and how much need there was for a shelter.

Linda Sanders, who lives at the corner of Oak Grove and Bailey Roads, said she has had 28 cats and 6 dogs dropped near her house in the last nine years. She said she called the United Way to ask about the group becoming a non-profit organization and learned it would take 2-3 years to get an FIN number and allow donations to be tax deductible.

Sanders said the United Way suggested they incorporate with another organization in another county to be able to accept tax deductible donations. Novotny said they did not want to be part of another group and that they needed to be a small, private organization.

Deanna Phillips, with the PALS organization, encouraged the group to use grants to find money. She said the PALS group goes to Petco every other weekend to adopt out dogs and has agreements with many of the vets in Bradley county for low-cost spay and neutering.

“The dogs you pick up are not going to be the cute little fluffy dogs everyone wants,” Phillips reminded them. “It will be hard to answer questions when people ask ‘how big will it get’ or ‘can it stay inside?’”

She also told the group that while everyone wanted to help animals, they needed to realize it would be much harder and more expensive than they might think and that disputes will always arise.

Gloria Hicks said she could not understand why there would be any problems. “All the groups want to help the animals. Why would they not all work together?” Novotny said they did not want to become fractured and that ego and politics would have no place in the organization.

Kim with Heavenly Cuts on Welcome Valley Road said she picked up a litter of puppies and was successful in finding them homes through the Tennessee Trader. She said it was easy to ask for a number and address to check up on the animals to ensure the homes were good.

Other questions brought up to the group included what to do with wild animals, what to do with neighbors who are not taking care of animals and what to do if an animal has been hit by a car and needs to be humanly killed.

SHARP plans to attend the September meeting of the county commission to ask for help forming a shelter and will meet again next Monday, at 10 a.m. in the courtroom of the courthouse. All those interested are invited to attend.