August
9, 2011
WHAT IS GOING
ON AT
ANIMAL CONTROL?
No
one seems to know what is going on at the animal control shelter. Karen Bryant is no longer there.
Why? Karen was known to
do everything possible to
save animals and not kill them just to make room for more. Rumors have it that she has been replaced with
a friend of the county manager’s wife and daughter.
When
was this position advertised? No one
remembers seeing it in the paper.
When
people go to the animal control shelter lately they find it is closed. Why
hasn’t anything been made public about why the shelter is closed
and when it
will be open again? Nothing is on the
county website and no one seems to know anything.
No
one we talk to seems to know what is going on, but Comm. Bernard sent
out an
email that may explain some of it. He
included pictures that we have not included in this email.
His email says things have been happening
since last Monday. This email has some
very good information.
What
has happened to the animals that were in the shelter and what will
happen to
these animals? The citizens of this
county were outraged before when 80% of the animals were being put down. We don’t want that to happen again.
---- Forwarded Message
----
From: Jack Bernard <bernard_jack@hotmail.com>
To: recipient <bernard_jack@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thu, August 4, 2011 5:51:53 PM
Subject: Jasper County Animal Shelter Overwhelmed
The Jasper County
Animal Control Officer was not prepared
for the scene she walked into Monday night. What she found was a
total of
88 animals living in squalid conditions. The animals included
exotic
birds, horses, cats, dogs, puppies, kittens, chickens, a pony and a
pig.
Thus began a three day rescue operation that didn’t need to
happen. The
problem was a result of the poor economy when pet owners hold on to
animals
they no longer have proper facilities to house, nor can they provide
proper
nutrition or vet care. The ultimate result is that the small
facility and
staff of this rural county’s animal control are overwhelmed.
The shelter is designed for 24 dogs and was already
at near capacity when 30 more were surrendered in just this one
case. Now
the County needs help in the form of volunteers, monetary donations,
dog and
cat food, but most of all loving homes for these dogs and cats since
it
cannot shelter this many animals for more than a few more days.
The lesson that needs
to come out of this is that before
you get into trouble, contact your animal control agency, they have
resources
that they can put into motion to deal with the problem before it
becomes a
crisis. Even a small facility like Jasper County can handle a
problem
like this before it becomes a crisis, but by the time the complaint hit
their
desk the problem was out of hand and it required intervention by the
State of
Georgia, an Exotic Bird Rescue, plus other organizations and
individuals to
even transport the animals out of the location. Luckily it looks
like
most of these animals will survive, but a few weeks more and that might
not
have been the case.
Jasper County
Animal Control is located at 126
Mack Tillman Drive, Monticello,
GA 31064 off SR 212. The
phone contact is
(706) 468-0396 or email is: jaspercountyanimalcontrol@gmail.com
Jack
Bernard
