RALEIGH -- Wake County named Matt Roylance as the interim director of their Animal Care, Control and Adoption Center on Wednesday.
Roylance will take over after current director Dennis McMichael leaves this Friday.
Roylance has been with Wake County for six years and has served as Deputy Director of Environmental Services for four. The county says that Roylance's immediate focus will be to move forward with a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) ordinance, recruit and hire a new director for the shelter, and develop an Animal Services Community Advisory Committee that will make recommendations to the Board of Commissioners.
McMichael took the job on November 7 and resigned barely three months later to return to his native Pennsylvania.
The Wake shelter has dealt with its share of controversy over the past year, with rising kill rates associated with sick dogs and the killing of a WRAL Pet of the Day in November on the same day the dog, Sassy, was featured on the news.
Sassy's death occurred on McMichael's second day on the job.
Following Sassy's death, the shelter temporarily altered its policy of automatically killing dogs showing signs of respiratory disease. The dogs are now quarantined and treated, but officials haven't yet determined if that solution will be permanent.
The county is also in the middle of a lawsuit with a local cat charity, Operation Catnip, over the capture and killing of stray cats which had previously been through Operation Catnip's TNR program. The charity says they had the county's blessing on a TNR project in Apex, but those in charge at that time are no longer with Animal Services and current leaders say no formal agreement with the group ever existed.
The parties recently settled a portion of the case when the county agreed to release the two remaining living strays back to Operation Catnip. Those cats were released on the property of a private citizen in Rolesville.
Under Roylance’s guidance, the Animal Center staff will also begin developing a proposal for the comprehensive assessment of the shelter's current euthanasia policy for dogs with upper respiratory infections and a general review of the current euthanasia policy and protocol. Their goals also include developing partnership strategies with local foster and rescue groups.
