Faced with a damning citizen task force report and thousands of emails and letters from concerned residents, DeKalb officials committed Tuesday to changing how they run the county animal shelter.
Among immediate plans are spending $365,000 in rainy day funds to install air conditioning at the aging shelter, located behind an incinerator at the county complex off Memorial Drive and Camp Circle.
Chief Executive Burrell Ellis said he is reviewing two county-owned vacant sites on the same county campus and a third on Covington Highway for a new shelter. He also is trying to figure out how to come up with the $4 million to $8 million that it's estimated a new facility will cost.
“We can do better, and our citizens are demanding that we do better,” Ellis said after addressing the County Commission.
Only 30 percent of animals in DeKalb's shelter are adopted or reunited with their owners, about the same rate as other metro Atlanta shelters. The rest -- more than 5,000 animals a year in DeKalb’s case -- are put down.
Euthanizing those animals costs DeKalb taxpayers $1.75 million a year -- more than eight times the $210,000 spent annually on the animals adopted out.
Officials last year empaneled a task force to offer potential solutions for animal services, a problem department in DeKalb since it was revealed a decade ago the county wasn’t meeting state regulations.
Despite major improvements since then, the task force report concluded the shelter remains a smelly “chamber of horrors” where animals and human caregivers alike suffer from bug infestations and mold growth.
The task force also reported the department is grossly underfunded, with a $2.7 million budget and just eight field officers to serve nearly 700,000 residents.
“I want to be clear, these conditions and outcomes can be reversed in very short order,” said Susan Neugent, a central DeKalb resident who chaired the task force. “It’s going to take commitment and it’s going to take leadership.”
After the task force first submitted its report Feb. 24, Ellis’ office waited two weeks before releasing it after several open records requests. A spokesman for Ellis said they wanted to weigh how to address the report.
In the meantime, more than 2,500 people signed an online petition and another 1,000 people wrote letters, calling for the task force recommendations to be implemented.
Task force members said public pressure needs to continue, since some of its ideas will require the political will for the county to ask more from pet owners.
In the metro area, only DeKalb and Fulton counties require owners to license their pets. They offer small discounts on animals that are fixed.
The task force recommends DeKalb increase its fees and work with veterinarians or outside companies to increase participation above the current 10 percent of owners who register as required.
DeKalb currently collects $100,000 per year from animal registration.
The task force wants the extra money that would be collected under its proposals to fund additional staff or setting up a spay-neuter program.
Fulton's is the only metro animal control department to offer discounted and free surgeries for residents. Between 60 and 80 animals receive the surgery each month in Fulton, eliminating at least 720 unwanted pets a year given average litter size, according to animal control officials.
The DeKalb commission agreed to examine the proposals, as well as set up an ongoing task force to oversee the department. And as early as next week the commission is expected to release funding for another six animal control officers -- money it held in reserve until it saw the report.
“Our goal, my goal, is to ensure there is real change from this report,” Commissioner Kathie Gannon said. “I imagine we are going to fast-track what we can do.”
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