Daviess County's animal shelter is heading back into government hands after It Takes a Village Rescue agreed to walk away from its contract exactly one year before its scheduled expiration, ending a partnership that will have lasted 21 months and leaving county officials scrambling to rebuild a public workforce before the new year.
The Daviess County Fiscal Court is set to vote Thursday on a mutual rescission of the contract, which would take effect December 31 and waive the agreement's usual requirement of 180 days' notice to terminate without cause, according to The Owensboro Times. It Takes a Village originally took over shelter operations on April 1, 2025, under a deal that was supposed to run through the end of 2027 with the possibility of an automatic three-year renewal.
County officials have pointed to a lack of community support as the reason behind the early breakup, as FOX 56 News reports. Daviess County Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen said he was not surprised but was disappointed to see the partnership end, adding that similar arrangements have worked elsewhere in Kentucky when the community backed them — something he said never materialized here.
Castlen Pushes Back on Neglect Claims
Castlen has taken a notably combative stance toward critics of the rescue group. Speaking in October, he said county officials investigated every serious complaint raised against It Takes a Village and found none were substantiated, according to WKU Public Radio. He went further, describing the public backlash against the group as “coordinated, untrue attacks,” and suggested the complaints may have originated from supporters of competing nonprofit rescue organizations.
That characterization clashes directly with concerns raised by residents. Julia Campbell criticized the county's research and outreach before choosing the partnership in the first place, per the FOX 56 News report, and said residents had been raising concerns since the organization took over operations last April. Campbell claimed some animals were not fed enough and did not receive adequate care, though county officials have maintained those complaints did not hold up under investigation.
A Pattern Across State Lines
The Daviess County split is not an isolated incident for the Evansville, Indiana-based rescue group. It Takes a Village, founded roughly 15 years ago, expanded its footprint to run regional adoption centers in both Spencer County, Indiana, and Daviess County, according to background reported by The Owensboro Times. The organization operates as a 501(c)(3) no-kill rescue focused on homeless animals.
Just weeks before the Daviess County news broke, Spencer County commissioners voted in September to end their own partnership with It Takes a Village, with animals from that shelter transferred to the group's Evansville facility, per FOX 56 News. Spencer County officials had not announced who would take over local animal welfare operations.
Rebuilding a County Workforce by January
With the shelter reverting to government control, Daviess County Treasurer Jordan Johnson has advertised 10 to 12 new county positions to be filled by January 1, including one shelter director, two administrative assistants, two certified veterinary technicians, and as many as seven shelter attendants, per the Owensboro Times report. The shelter director position will report directly to the judge-executive's office.
Running the shelter is not cheap. The operation costs local government between $600,000 and $800,000 annually in public funds, according to the WKU Public Radio report, with money previously disbursed to It Takes a Village on a reimbursement basis for eligible operational expenses.
Animal control enforcement will remain separate from the shelter's daily operations. When It Takes a Village took over in April 2025, animal-control duties shifted to the Daviess County Sheriff's Office, where animal-control officers were non-sworn, the Owensboro Times reported at the time. Shelter operations themselves still fall under Kentucky Revised Statute 258.215, which requires shelters to hold impounded stray dogs for a minimum of five days before they can be adopted, transferred, or humanely euthanized, according to Daviess County Government.
Early Doubts on the Fiscal Court
The partnership was never unanimous from the start. When the Daviess County Fiscal Court first approved the contract with It Takes a Village in January 2025, it passed by a 3-1 vote, with Commissioner Janie Marksberry casting the lone dissent over concerns about the group's facilities in Indiana, according to the Owensboro Times. Marksberry had specifically flagged worries about It Takes a Village's Evansville facility and how staffing was handled there.
Campbell, for her part, said she hopes the end of the partnership will lead to better animal care going forward. In the meantime, she said residents can help by donating food, walking dogs, or adopting animals from the shelter while the county works to staff up its new team before the contract officially lapses at the end of December.
