A report by the Fayette County Board of Commissioners shows that 77% of the improvements suggested during recent meetings were evaluated and implemented. Upgrades include dog beds installed in each kennel, a sitting area in the cat adoption room, and enhancements in the walking trails.
Items underway include enhanced audio/video monitoring at the front counter and drainage system evaluation among other requests. The county is evaluating hiring part-time dog walkers to supplement volunteers as well as enhancing the existing fresh air in-take system.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture received complaints which resulted in six inspections from April to June. All Georgia Department of Agriculture inspections indicate that the shelter is well maintained, meeting all premise requirements with humane care being observed and found no violations.
“This facility currently meets all premise requirements to include space requirement per GDA Rules and Regulations,” said the Georgia Department of Agriculture. “Some of the general population dog runs have been enlarged yet again since last inspection. Dogs have ample room to move about,” the inspection report said.
“Fayette County continues to take these issues seriously and are diligently evaluating and implementing improvements since the facility was opened,” Steve Rapson, County Manager, said. “Fayette County remains committed to working with our animal advocate partners and volunteers to ensure we have a facility that meets our needs now and, in the future,” he said.
The Fayette County Animal Shelter has been dedicated to serving the community for close to 40 years. Our services include assistance to animals with public safety as the number one priority. To learn more about our services and to get involved with our work, please visit FayetteCountyGA.gov. — News release provided by the Fayette County Commission.
@PTCdawg – and which particular best practices are you referring to?
Attend the BoC meetings and listen. Go to the recording of the meeting on July 11th and listen to the public comments, especially Dr. Alvarez who clearly references documented shelter standards. Go online and read “The Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters, second edition”, The current cat cages do not even meet the basic standards listed in the guide. We have a great new shelter director as of July 11th, a positive. But, we need new kennels for all animals. The commissioners and staff did not build the modern shelter that would carry us through the next 10 – 15 years that citizens were promised!
Hey, PTCdawg, considering your criticism of how poorly the county handled the opening of this new shelter, what specific solutions do you propose to address these failures? Please provide concrete examples.
Possibly our commissioners should spend some time like the cats eating, sleeping and living over their toilets.
The committee did everything but put wheels on the car. Why is everybody so upset? Why don’t they like the car?
What committee? If you are referring to animal advocates and volunteers, none were involved in any decision making process for the new shelter. More importantly, no animal behavior expert, vet, or shelter design expert was involved. The myth being perpetuated by the county administrator involving an advisory committee was put to rest by a Open Records Request resulting in no minutes from any such meetings being found. Additionally commissioners were presented with the notes from the last meeting the former shelter director held with advocates and volunteers, which was not a county committee. Those meetings were terminated shortly after Carter Watkins, the architect, was approved and there is no way that group looked at blueprints that did not exist at the time.
Spin your improvements all you want, the bottom line is you opened a $3.2 million facility that failed to address the physical and mental welfare of the animals in your care. It was far from the modern shelter you promised citizens you were going to build in 2019. The majority of the cost saving cuts you made pre-build were to things affecting the animals. Some of the corrections you have made since opening are bandages, yet you tout them as completed and put them on your list as such. Anyone putting faith in passing inspections by the GA Dept. of Ag needs to look into just how basic their checklist is – it fails to take into account best practices for a modern shelter. . You ask us to consider your mental well-being as you ignore that of the caged animals at the shelter. You can do better…