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Thursday, July 10, 2008
Show some love: adopt a pet
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He’d just been brought in that morning by an animal control officer. A little mixed terrier.
He’d been locked inside a vacant, abandoned house in a subdivision right next to the Gwinnett Animal Welfare and Enforcement Center. Jason Cannon, a supervisor at the shelter, said the pet had been in the house several days before someone contacted authorities.
“He’s skin and bones,” he said. “We’ve got vet work to do on him. Get its weight up. He’ll be needing a home.”
Cannon doesn’t know for sure, but surmises the occupants probably left the dwelling -and the dog - because of foreclosure. This shelter, like many in metro Atlanta and nationwide, is taking in pets for adoption because owners can no longer provide for them. Quite a few cite foreclosure when they give the animals up, said Chris Hughes, rescue coordinator.
“It’s hard on the people,” she said. “And hard on the animals.”
So if you hanker for a new pet, head over to the animal shelter in Lawrenceville. The Badie Tour stopped by Wednesday. My kids wanted to come to work with me after I told them where I was going. Good thing they didn’t. I’m pretty sure we would have left with an animal. Even without them, a jet-black cat with green eyes and a tan chow puppy almost had a home.
Almost.
Cannon gave me a tour of the $7.5 million facility, which opened in September 2007. It’s not even fair to compare the new digs to the old county shelter off Hi-Hope Road. Gone are the metal cages in the adoption area. Here, animals are kept in see-through pens (don’t tap the glass, a sign states) that have individual air filtration systems. That way, diseases can’t spread among the canines and felines. Gone is that putrid smell that practically took your breath away when you walked into the kennel area of the old shelter.
And gone are those gray, dull colors; the new facility is warm, cheery, welcoming. It has a spay/neuter clinic, a barn for livestock, and isolation areas such as a sick bay.
The county’s animal control officers are based there. So is the Gwinnett County Police Department’s K-9 unit.
Cannon admitted the drab conditions at the old shelter fueled a perception that the county, and the shelter staff, couldn’t care less about the animals. Of course, that was the furthest thing from the truth, he said, yet some people believed it. Now the county has a facility to bark proudly about.
“Our image wasn’t good, Cannon said, “though we tried and did the best we could with that building.”
The shelter can house 168 animals and takes in about 20 to 25 animals a day that have strayed, been abandoned or neglected, or turned in for adoption. You can find most any size, shape and breed of dog you want.
And if you’re interested in that mixed terrier who was left all alone, ask to see the dog in pen No. 178.
The Animal Welfare and Enforcement Center, 884 Winder Highway. Adoption and reclaim hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Online: www.gwinnettanimalcontrol.com. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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