The Purring Station, a non-profit car rescue, is a homemade facility that can hold a little more than 100 cats.

LIVE OAK, Fla. — Suwannee County has an animal control problem, and no one knows that better than Irene Meisel.

For 10 years, Meisel has been running a cat rescue from her home in Falmouth. She set a goal for herself to save 100 cats a year for 10 years, and on Saturday, Sept. 24, she celebrated her tenth year and more than 1,000 cats rescued.

“I am not Suwannee County’s solution to their cat problem,” Meisel said. “I haven’t even made a dent in the problem.”

Meisel runs the Purring Station. She doesn’t like to disclose where it is because she worries that people will adopt cats and use them for dog fights, she said.

The Purring Station began as a small endeavor. She was diagnosed with terminal blood cancer 10 years ago and moved to Live Oak to get her affairs in order, she said.

When she moved into her new home, the previous owner left behind seven cats. Her new home was also near the county dump and she noticed how many feral cats lived off the trash. So she began to take in strays and converting her home into a cat sanctuary.

Things escalated from there. Meisel converted her entire home into a cat shelter, with segregated areas to keep the sick cats away from the healthy and the adoptable away from the unadoptable.

She became a certified non-profit and started working full-time on cat rescue.

“I figured that if nobody else is going to do it, then I’ll do it,” she said. “I was too sick to work, but not sick enough to do nothing.”

Taking care of the cats is what kept her alive, she said. Every morning she had a reason to get out of bed. If she died, the cats died.

Meisel isn’t the only person in Suwannee County fighting for improved animal shelters. Tracie Daniels runs Suwannee PAWS at 1427 Ohio Ave and is a veterinarian. She has been waiting for new leadership within the county to take the animal issue seriously.

“There’s just not an awareness to the issue,” she said. “Nobody has brought these things up. It’s just been the status quo.”

Daniels said the county can do three things to improve its animal control problem.

She said the number one issue the county faces is not knowing the laws that govern animal welfare. Following the law for rabies, euthanasia, human treatment and the standards for animal care.

Another issue for Daniels is a lack of oversight and accountability. She said that it is difficult for regular people to look up how many animals the shelters euthanized or got adopted.

“I would like to see the shelters report to someone who could actually do something with the information,” she said. “But, unfortunately, the sheriff department and LOPD (Live Oak Police Department) are who the city and county animal control are under.”

LOPD currently has one part-time animal control officers.

Daniels said that sheriffs do not typically have an animal background, so the animal control officer basically run the departments on their own with little ability to make changes.

Janise Hunter, Suwannee County animal control officer, said being under the sheriff’s office is a good thing. People respect the sheriff’s office, she said, and when she pulls up in uniform she gets respect.

“We wouldn’t get any respect if we didn’t have a uniform on,” she said.

Sheriff Tony Cameron agreed.

He said their job is to run a animal control facility, not a humane society. But Cameron did say that animal control is something he would rather not deal with. He would much rather use budgeted money for more deputies than more animal control officers, he said.

“It is under me because it was under the previous sheriff,” he said. “Really and truly, animal control is not the sheriff’s responsibility.”

The county commissioners wanted it to stay under the sheriff’s office because it has been under the sheriff’s office for 20 years, Cameron said.

Cameron said the county is saturated with animals because people refuse to get their animals spayed and neutered.

“We don’t have an animal problem. We have a people problem,” Cameron said.

Next year, Suwannee County will have a new sheriff. And Daniels hopes that the new sheriff will take things in a different direction, she said. She wants to see a separate division not under the sheriff to handle animal control issues.

“Someone needs to be responsible for animals in the community,” Daniels said. “I don’t understand why we have to bog down phone lines at the police department with animal issues.”

Pic1: The Purring Station a cat rescue created by Irene Meisel recently celebrated its tenth year and more than 1,000 cats saved.

Pic2: At the Purring Station, cats come in-and-out of homemade shelters.

Pic3: Irene Meisel founded the Purring Station, a non-profit cat rescue, after being diagnosed with terminal blood cancer over ten years ago.

Pic4: Richard “Rico” Gordon has been volunteering at the Purring Station for five years.

Pic5: The Purring Station, a non-profit car rescue, is a homemade facility that can hold a little more than 100 cats.