In two separates incidents, workers were bitten by a dog in January, both at the humane society and the animal shelter, which the society now operates.

Lisa King An employee was bitten recently at the Shelby County Animal Care Services on Kentucky Street. Buy this photo Lisa King A volunteer was bitten in mid-January at the Shelby County Humane Society. Buy this photo

One involved a volunteer at the Shelby County Humane Society and the other, an employee at the former Shelby County Animal Shelter, now known as the Shelby County Animal Care Services.

The volunteer, Brenda Popp, was bitten Jan. 12, and Jill Wintergerst, an employee at the other facility, was bitten the week before.

Mark Smith, president of the Shelby County Humane Society’s Board, said that the two incidents are unrelated, and as far as anyone could tell, were unprovoked.

He said he could not speak extensively about the circumstances involving Popp’s situation, as that incident has not been resolved yet through the company’s insurance. Popp’s husband, Mike, said that neither he nor his wife wished to comment about the situation.

However, according to records from Shelby County Central Dispatch, Popp was bitten several times on various locations on her body, including her hand, arm and leg while in the kennel with the dog at the humane society.

“Is it bleeding heavily?” asked the dispatcher, to which an unidentified caller answered yes.

No one at either facility would comment on the attacks, instead referring all questions to Smith.

Smith said he has been very concerned about both of the attacks.

“We did reach out to the family early on and we want to do right by them with everything involved,” he said of the Popps.

The attack at the humane society, as with the one at the shelter, involved a pitbull mix that the workers were acquainted with, and in both instances, the women were bit primarily on the hand and arm, said Smith.

At the shelter, Wintergerst, was bitten by a dog named Bruno, said Smith.

“She was getting ready to go in – and had actually been in the kennel with Bruno before – and she was going to open the door to go in the kennel, and the dog actually came out and aggressively went after her,” he said.

Both women were taken to the hospital and treated for the bites and both are recovering well, said Smith.

Wintergerst did not wish to comment on the situation.

It is not clear what happened to the dog at the humane society, but Smith said that Bruno was put down on the recommendation of the shelter’s director Shelly Phillips-Wright.

“Shelly does evaluations for our transport program that we do – that’s one of the reasons we brought Shelly on board, because she’s very good at doing behavior evaluations as to whether they can be adopted out,” he said.

He said that one factor that led to the animal’s aggressive behavior was that it had been cooped up indoors because of quarantine conditions imposed at the shelter due to a canine influenza outbreak.

That quarantine has since been lifted.

“The problem with this situation with Bruno is that because of the quarantine we were under, the dogs hadn’t been getting out much, they couldn’t go outside, they couldn’t do anything. So if there’s already an aggressive dog, then that builds up,” he said. “So it was determined by the group that Bruno was not going to be adoptable, so they basically did an evaluation and decided that because he wasn’t adoptable he needed to be euthanized, and he was.”

The situation that led to the attack at the humane society is still unclear at this time.

The humane society took over the operation of the county’s animal shelter at the first of the year, after an approval in November by the Shelby County Fiscal Court.

The new agreement included a reduction of funding the county provides, down somewhat to $98,000 annually, and providing the use of only one vehicle, instead of two.

The county still runs an animal control program, picking up strays and animals considered dangerous and employs a staff of three that has been moved to a building behind the Stratton Center on Washington Street. Their function is animal control only.

Leon Federle, the former shelter director, has been moved to a new position of director of property maintenance.

Smith said that personnel at both facilities, both paid and volunteer at the humane society, receive training from a professional dog trainer on how to deal with the animals.

“We haven’t done a volunteer program at the shelter yet, primarily for a couple of reasons – it was in quarantine, and we haven’t been able to get that started out,” said Smith.

He said that the decision to put Bruno down was a difficult one for Phillips-Wright.

“It’s never easy to get into that situation,” he said. “When we voted to take control of the shelter – we knew going in, and the board was okay with that – that we could have a situation that we would have to possibly euthanize, whether it was a dog that was so aggressive, can’t be adopted, or had health issues.”