After the City of Oxford renewed their contract with MS Critterz last month, the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors followed suit.

During their regular meeting on Monday, the Board approved the County’s contract with its no-kill animal shelter during an executive session. The renewal from both the City and the County comes after previous shelter board president Gail Brown resigned last month amid controversy surrounding a Facebook comment Brown made using a racial slur.

The MS Critterz board elected Aynslee Smith as its new president during their September meeting.

October marked the one-year anniversary of MS Critterz taking over the animal shelter after the Oxford-Lafayette Humane Society decided to stop managing it. Both the Board of Aldermen and Supervisors selected MS Critterz.

From October of 2018 to September of this year, MS Critterz took in a total of 1,426 animals in Lafayette County. They transported 794 animals and adopted out 728 animals during their first year. More than 50 animals were part of their trap-neuter-release program.

“I hear great things and y’all are doing a great job,” supervisors president Jeff Busby said of MS Critterz during the meeting.

The terms of the contract include the County paying MS Critterz $97,200, with an additional $40,000 in capital donations to go toward the purchase of a new transport van. The City of Oxford pays $106,000 per year, with some of that money going toward services that only take place inside city limits.