With election season approaching, it’s important for residents to know where Danville City Council candidates stand when it comes to the city’s animal welfare, said Sue Bell, executive director of Homeward Trails Animal Rescue.
At a candidate forum Wednesday, voters will get that opportunity.
“Going into an election year, it’s really important to hear what candidates have to say about what has become one of the most important issues in Danville,” Bell said.
Homeward Trails, a Northern Virginia-based animal rescue with a location in Danville, is hosting the forum at the Historic North Theatre at 629 North Main Street at 6 p.m. During the event, a moderator will ask candidates questions about animal welfare issues in the city.
The city’s shelter, the Danville Area Humane Society, has drawn national and local criticism for years over its high euthanasia rates, and a passionate conversation in Danville has ramped up in recent months after a string of controversies.
About 59% of animals at the Danville shelter were euthanized in 2025, according to self-reported numbers collected by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That’s the lowest rate in years in Danville, though still far above the state average of 9%.
This year, the shelter was also found liable for recordkeeping inaccuracies by the Virginia Board of Pharmacy and criticized by residents and Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, for a microchip mistake.
In August, the shelter’s director, Paulette Dean, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for fraudulently altering or destroying public records in a different role, as the city’s humane investigator.
Dean has told Cardinal News that her compassion for animals drives an open-admission policy at the shelter. The Danville shelter accepts every animal, regardless of the animal’s health or space and resource constraints — even regardless of where it came from. This has resulted in a high animal intake in Danville, which contributes to its high euthanasia rates.
The open-admission policy comes up often in board meetings, but the shelter has never seriously considered changing it, Dean said earlier this year.
“The question is actually a very easy one to answer,” she said. “No, we can’t go limited-admission because what happens to the animals if we do?”
City Manager Ken Larking is maintaining support for the shelter despite its issues, though incumbent council members have mostly remained mum on the topic.
Council members rarely speak about animal welfare or the shelter during council meetings, Bell said, and there has been “virtually nothing” shared from elected officials in response to community concerns or calls for change at the shelter.
“The general consensus among the community is that the city council is not particularly responsive, not hearing and understanding the issues at hand, and certainly not taking any action to address the concerns,” Bell said.
In previous Cardinal News coverage of the shelter, council members have either not responded to requests for comment or deferred questions to Larking.
In a July interview, Larking said this is typical — elected officials will often send concerned residents to speak with him.
“That happens with anything, not just this,” he said. “Very rarely does a city council member engage during a public hearing. … It’s not really set up to be a back-and-forth.”
Larking announced in August that the city plans to conduct a comprehensive assessment of all animal welfare services in Danville. The city is creating a request-for-proposals, though there’s no timeline yet on when that will be public, he said.
He disagrees with the claim that the city government is not responsive to this issue.
“I’m not sure if that characterization is fair,” Larking said. “I’m not aware of any time that I haven’t been responsive. Any time someone wants to provide constructive criticism or ideas to help, I’m happy to listen.”
Tanya Martin, a resident outspoken against the shelter for years, has been frustrated with the response — or lack thereof, she says — from the local government on the matter.
“The councilmen that have been serving this community for years have ignored our pleas for change at our taxpayer funded animal shelter,” Martin said. “The candidates for council have followed suit and have not taken a stand on the lack of animal welfare in Danville.”
She said she doesn’t have faith that current city leadership will do “what is necessary to help the animals” and believes that the only option is to create an alternative shelter.
Martin plans to be at the Wednesday event, she said.
Conversations about the shelter primarily take place on social media, Bell said, although a handful of engaged residents have spoken at city council meetings on several occasions in the past.
The forum is a chance for candidates to come before the public in person and “address concerns and questions that are being repeatedly brought up by community members,” she said. “It’s giving these potentially publicly elected officials the opportunity to go on record and be clear about what they will do if they’re elected.”
What to expect Wednesday night
Of the 11 city council candidates, six have confirmed that they will be there.
So far, incumbents James Buckner and Bryant Hood and challengers Tony Howerton, Shelby Irving, Lonnie Jones and Dustin Whittle will participate. Mayor Alonzo Jones and incumbents Danny Marshall and Gary Miller have declined, along with challenger Shakeva Frazier. Challenger Jasmine Lipscomb has not responded, according to Bell.
Homeward Trails, along with a small group of residents, compiled a list of questions for candidates, based on questions the organization hears regularly, she said. Homeward Trails also gave residents a window to submit questions of their own.
Candidates received these questions ahead of time so they could research and prepare, Bell said.
The constant flurry of information on social media, the passionate nature of the conversation and the staunch support that the shelter continues to receive from its board and the city can make the topic a confusing one, she said.
“Some of the feedback that I’ve gotten from elected folks is that this issue has become so inflammatory and so divisive, and there is so much information being thrown around that it has become rather difficult for them to discern the actual facts,” Bell said. “We certainly feel that this is their job as elected officials, and as an entity that is providing taxpayer dollars to a vendor, but we empathize with that a little bit. Unless you’re fully entrenched in animal welfare, it can be difficult to tell what is fact versus opinion.”
Providing questions to the candidates ahead of time gives them an opportunity to digest the information and prepare statements, she said. This is especially important because each candidate will only get a few minutes to answer each question.
It will be a moderated discussion, not a back-and-forth conversation with residents in attendance, Bell said.
“We want this to be a respectful, informative event, and we have concerns based on what we’ve seen on social media that if it was a bit too freeform, it would turn into some kind of venting event,” she said. “We’re not going to be taking questions from the public for those reasons and for the purpose of time.”
The event is open to the public and does not require registration.
Bell said that Homeward Trails is also planning to record and post the forum online so residents who could not attend can watch.
“We feel poised to put on what we hope will be a very productive and respectful forum,” Bell said. “It is the most hotly debated topic going on in Danville, and people absolutely should vote with this topic in mind.”
