A Henry organization that finds homes for the county’s strays or unwanted dogs and cats is itself trying to avoid homelessness.
In a Tuesday Facebook appeal for help, the Henry County Humane Society said it is being kicked out of the county-owned digs from which it has operated since 2005. The reason: Henry leaders said the building is unsafe and needed for unspecified future growth.
“They said they need more space, but there was nothing official or nothing in writing,” Stephanie Fenton, chairwoman of the Henry County Humane Society’s board, said Wednesday in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The county said that’s not true. Henry leaders informed the humane society on Oct. 20 that it would have to vacate the property by Feb. 1, county spokeswoman Melissa Robinson said. The county was considering expanding its own animal shelter operations into the building until an inspection of the space determined it was unsafe.
“What originally started as a need for more space has turned into a safety issue and the difficult decision to move the humane society is overshadowed by the responsibility of the county to ensure the health and safety of employees, the public and the animals,” the county said in a news release on Wednesday.
Henry’s decision comes as governments across metro Atlanta wrangle with growing numbers of strays or unwanted animals.
Several shelters are facing moderate to severe overcrowding — including Henry’s animal control and care shelter — while the number of people willing to adopt or foster pets is falling.
That has led some facilities to take drastic steps to address the issues. For instance, a DeKalb County shelter in Chamblee that prided itself as a “no-kill” facility began euthanizing animals recently because it consistently ran out of room to house them.
Conditions at the facility were so problematic because of the overcrowding, including animal cages with feces and urine and dogs that had not been walked in days, that it elicited repeated visits from state inspectors.
Fulton County, which also has struggled with overcrowding, cut the ribbon on a new $40 million, 50,000-square-foot shelter in November to try to address its issues.
Capt. Michael Hobgood, the Henry shelter’s animal care and control director, told the AJC in October that the facility was slightly over-capacity. The shelter can hold 120 dogs and 65 cats. On Oct. 30, the shelter had about eight dogs above capacity and about 10 cats below capacity.
Credit: Jenn Finch/AJC
Credit: Jenn Finch/AJC
The county did not immediately respond to a request for capacity numbers on Wednesday.
The Humane Society’s Fenton said the county’s animal control office stopped sending animals to her organization last month, signaling that the relationship with Henry was changing. But she said correspondence between the group and the county was sparse and that Humane Society personnel were shocked that Henry was evicting them.
“As far as I know, they don’t have a plan” for the building, she said, adding that it’s unclear if they are going to demolish or renovate it. “They don’t know what they’re going to do with it. They just want us gone.”
Robinson said the humane society has been operating free of charge out of the roughly 1,500-square-foot county-owned building, but that Henry — the second fastest growing county in metro Atlanta — needs the building because it is running out of room for its operations.
“The bottom line is the county needs the space,” Robinson said, adding that the humane society is a good partner with the county and that there has been no concerns about the care it provides animals. “We are trying to give them enough time to relocate, but if they can’t relocate with their animals, we will definitely take those cats and dogs back and find them homes.”
Fenton said around six dogs and five cats remain in the humane society’s care as of Wednesday. Normally they would have 10-12 dogs and five or six cats.
She said she has heard from two people in real estate since putting out the appeal, but that neither had a listing that they could move in to. She said even if there was available space, Henry’s rigorous zoning requirements could make finding a new home difficult.
She said she is disappointed that the relationship with Henry County has become strained after so many years of working together for the betterment of animals.
“Why is the government not working with private non-profits?” she said. “Why are we butting heads. I don’t understand.”
Credit: Jenn Finch/AJC
Credit: Jenn Finch/AJC
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