BOC discusses potential shift of animal control to shelter

The commissioners agreed to consider the matter again when they open budget talks next month.

“We are willing to do this,” Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter director Susan Fornash told the BOC, regarding animal control. “But we don’t have excess funds. So, however we can work so it’s agreeable with y’all, it will have to be funded.”

Fornash provided commissioners with a list of animal control expenses that the shelter would need covered by the county, including a $22,000 salary for an animal control officer, $20,000 in animal control and veterinarian supplies and $2,500 in certification costs. She estimated known expenses at $51,975, which is comparable to what the county currently budgets for animal control.

However, there are a number of other startup expenses that must be covered, such as the pouring of a cement pad with a drain that ties to the septic system, the relocation of pens from the current animal control facilities to the shelter and the establishment of at least two additional quarantine runs.

Fornash said the shelter would expect to hold 10 to 30 more dogs at a time if it takes on animal control services. She said the shelter would abide by the county’s animal control ordinance.

“We wouldn’t want to change the ordinance,” said Fornash. “The only change perhaps would be the care of the animals.”

If the county contracts with the shelter for animal control services, the government must still designate an employee to determine “dangerous dog” status of questionable animals. That employee could be from the code enforcement office, the sheriff’s department or the health department.

As it stands, the county operates animal control services out of the code enforcement office. One of the two certified animal control officers recently resigned from that office, leaving code enforcement director Jack Huff as the lone dog response officer.

Huff recently approached commissioners and asked for some relief for that office, saying that animal control is flooded with “dogs off property” calls that take up considerable time but aren’t really public safety hazards. He asked the BOC to amend the animal control ordinance to focus the office’s response more on reports of dangerous dogs than on “dogs off property” calls. The commissioners agreed to ask the committee that drafted the ordinance to meet again to consider the proposed amendments.

Commissioner John Pethel said he believes the public has been misled about the BOC’s intentions. He said the commissioners are not trying to do away with animal control.

“There has been some bad communication on what we’re trying to do here,” said Pethel. “I’ve had a couple of calls asking me why we want to do away with animal control. And our intent, my intent, and I think it’s the board’s intent, not to do away with animal control. It’s to make it better for the taxpayers and better for the animals. Because we’ve had a lot of problems up until recently with how animals are treated … And we just felt like if it was all in one place (at the shelter) with one person looking after it, it might be a better situation, especially for the animals.”

Commissioner Mike Youngblood said the BOC has indeed considered disbanding animal control. He recalled a vote nearly a year ago regarding the elimination of the service.

“There were two votes to do away with animal control,” said Youngblood. “So, that statement wasn’t true, John.”

Youngblood praised Fornash and the shelter board for their willingness to work with the BOC, saying it was “a long time coming.” The District 3 commissioner also said he wouldn’t favor contracting with the shelter.

“Animal control is nowhere near what it needs to be,” said Youngblood. “But what we have with animal control, I think we’ve come a long ways. And I’m not for moving it. I think we need to keep it under the county and build from here.”

Commissioner Stanley Thomas said most everyone he’s talked to in District 1 doesn’t want animal control. And he said he doesn’t know that the government can afford to sustain the service.

“Anyone who looks at the paper, who looks at the situation with our taxes, and looks at our budget, and the things that are happening in our county, knows that we are going to have to make some decisions,” said Thomas.

One citizen, Samantha Willard, brought her two children to the podium last Thursday and urged the BOC to adequately fund animal control.

“I would like for you to tell them why mommy’s tax dollars are not going to her being able to play in her front yard because of my neighbor’s dogs,” said Willard. “Tell her why she’s not important enough to play in our front yard.”

Willard said she is an “Army brat” who have moved many times and never lived anywhere without animal control. She said she loves the area but doesn’t understand how the county can’t have an adequate animal control service, which she said is a basic part of public safety.

“My mother told me to move, that I moved to an uneducated, redneck, backwoods area,” said Willard. “Is that what we want people to think we are?”