One of eight puppies dropped off at the Vicksburg-Warren Humane Society peers through the fenced gate at the center Tuesday. (Melanie Duncan Thortis/The Vicksburg Post)

Animal control in Warren County outside Vicksburg may be handled through a contract with the Humane Society, supervisors said Tuesday in a breakthrough in talks with city officials.

Board of Supervisors President Richard George made the announcement at his board’s joint meeting with the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen at the Chamber of Commerce building.

“Unless something unknown happens, I don’t see any particular problem that would prevent us from being inclined to sign off on it,” George said of the county government’s proposed $125,000 annual pact with the Humane Society.

The privately operated chapter of the national organization here would, in turn, hire personnel and respond to those who “seek relief from nuisance animals, whether their ownership is known or unknown,” George said.

While the contract is being negotiated, a new county animal-control ordinance is also being prepared. The ordinance will be similar to the city’s current one, only less strict in some areas, officials said.

“We’ve got to go over a couple of things with the district attorney (Gil Martin), who drafted the ordinance,” George said. “During the course of the next month, we probably will address a couple of questions that have been brought up.”

City-county talks on a combined solution to the issue have been fractious and have apparently come to an end. Last month, Mayor Laurence Leyens, with an adopted pet dog on his desk, said supervisors’ failure to engage in good-faith talks masked “a dirty little secret” that they had no interest in animal welfare or residents having problems with strays.

Leyens has said a plan last year was for each board to fund conversion of an empty, city-owned building at City Park into an animal-control facility. Each government budgeted $125,000 to fund the project.

The deal George described Tuesday would take the place of county participation in that project.

“The county’s needs obviously are different from the municipality, because our ordinance would not be as extensive,” George said. He added that the proposed agreement would be nearly ideal for the county since the Humane Society’s facilities could be expanded and its staff assisted.

“They would be hiring some additional workers to free volunteers to do the more pleasant tasks,” District 1 Supervisor David McDonald said.

The Humane Society, which operates on about $90,000 a year, including an annual $12,000 allocation from the county, has been financially strapped for years. It spays and neuters pets and serves as an adoption agency.

The city’s animal-control operation costs about $190,000 annually. George suggested the city might follow the county’s lead in proposing a similar deal with the Humane Society.

To fund the first year of the deal, supervisors would use $125,000 of the county’s share of gaming-tax revenue, supervisors said. Leyens said that money comes from city and county residents alike, but would be spent purely to benefit county residents.

Overall, however, Leyens, who threatened a week and a half earlier to boycott such meetings for lack of supervisors’ accountability, complimented them. “I appreciate that you all are dealing with a real issue,” he said.