Fulton commission approves reduced contract with LifeLine Animal Project
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved a contract with LifeLine Animal Project that reduces the amount the county and its cities will pay the organization by almost $2 million.
That money will instead go to the Fulton County Police Department, which began handling animal control field services on Wednesday.
The change is taking effect four months after the death of 62-year-old Donna Nguyen, a Union City woman who was fatally mauled by at least one dog in a horrific case that county officials have said LifeLine and the Union City Police Department mishandled.
“Today is Day 1,” said Fulton County Police Department Capt. Nicole Dwyer, who oversees the animal services division. “There’s going to be more officers on the street, quicker response time for priority calls.”
LifeLine will receive a little more than $7.4 million next year to run the county’s animal shelter, but will no longer staff a 21-person field services team. That team began working Wednesday for the Fulton County Police Department and hiring has begun, county officials said.
At full strength, the team will consist of 26 civilian animal control officers and four police officers, including Dwyer. They will respond to calls of animal attacks, or aggressive animals.
Fulton County bills its 15 cities based on their use of the shelter and field calls, spokesperson Jessica Corbitt said.
Bringing animal control field services under the Fulton County Police Department will improve evidence handling, processing of criminal cases, communications with cities and access to call data, county staff told commissioners in a Wednesday presentation.
Union City police took 32 minutes to respond to 911 calls about the dog attack and LifeLine did not report it to county police for investigation for almost two weeks — violating policy that requires county police to investigate animal attacks. The responding Union City officer and two LifeLine employees were fired after a subsequent investigation of the attack.
Meanwhile, LifeLine euthanized four dogs that county police do not believe attacked Nguyen.
There were no eyewitnesses or video. The Union City Police Department’s failure to collect evidence and LifeLine’s delay in reporting the attack meant that no DNA could be collected, county police said. Nguyen’s wounds healed for almost two weeks before she died of sepsis, so bite molds could not be taken during her autopsy, police said.
“I don’t think we’ll ever know what dogs actually did that,” Dwyer told commissioners Wednesday.
Another woman recently spent months in the hospital after three Cane Corso dogs attacked her in South Fulton, Dwyer said. The woman came from Niger to visit family and was walking with her four small grandchildren, Dwyer said. She protected the children while the dogs mauled her, Dwyer said.
“Parts of her body were ripped off and she’ll never be the same,” Dwyer said.
Singer and actor Tyrese Gibson was charged with animal cruelty in October after his dogs killed a neighbor’s spaniel in Buckhead, police said.
The contract approved Wednesday gives 3% increases to LifeLine every year through 2029.
Fulton County paid $40 million for the new animal shelter that opened two years ago. The shelter was designed for 476 animals, but the average population is 546, said Mike Rowicki, the county’s director of strategic planning and performance management.
In the past two years, intake has increased 41%, he said.
“The numbers are astounding as to how many animals are coming in monthly,” he said.
There are currently 514 animal-related court cases in the pipeline, but not all of those animals are being held in the shelter, Rowicki said. He recommended two additional positions in the solicitor general’s office, which prosecutes the cases in environmental court.
The magistrate court is also willing to hear motions for disposition of evidence, which can allow animals on court holds to be fostered or adopted, county officials said.
“I’m definitely pleased to see us taking over and making a change related to enforcement,” Commissioner Bob Ellis said.
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