Is the Fayette County Animal Shelter inhumane? Has the county been ignoring major issues? What is being done to fix existing problems? And what about this new shelter barn being built by the county—will it help with problems or create more?
Last week The Citizen ran an open Letter to the Editor from the Fayette County Animal Shelter Task Force, iterating some disconcerting problems with the shelter. This week, we met with the task force to look into their concerns. We also interviewed County Manager Steve Rapson and Animal Control Director Tracy Thompson to find out what the county is doing to remedy the issues mentioned. And we toured the shelter.
When the shelter first opened last April there was a pretty big outcry from the public about inhumane conditions at the shelter, primarily around the size of the kennels, which caused larger dogs to have bloody tails from their basic wagging. “The current animal shelter, when it opened, we had so many issues down there with the housing of the animals. And so in trying to get that corrected and brought to a humane situation, that’s why the task force was created,” said task force member Tami Hurst-Clarke.
According to everyone involved, this main dog kennel issue was addressed by modifying the main modular kennels. That modification caused some additional problems—difficulty in cleaning the dog kennels, for example. There were a lot of other issues that volunteers at the shelter identified, and they formed the task force to lobby the county to make needed fixes. Some of the issues they iterated were puppy housing that was too small and difficult to keep puppies from sleeping and eating in their own bodily fluids and cat housing that was too small with no access to the outdoors or to light.
Task force member Rae Sansom said, “While phase two addresses a barn and the needs of the occasional wayward horse in Fayette County, the cat’s needs aren’t being addressed at all. And according to the ASV (Association of Shelter Veterinarian) Guidelines 2022 co-authored by Dr. Stacy Cannon, who actually came out and provided recommendations for our shelter prior to the design, the phase two design rollout, the cat housing units should be no less than eight square feet, and our units are half that size. The units should have enough space so the cats can eat, sleep, and sit apart from the areas where they defecate urinate. Ours don’t. And they should also be spaced about four feet apart from each other to prevent the spread of disease. When you think about our laundry issue, inadequate housing of just of the dogs and cats in general, the recurrent theme is that disease is spread pretty easily here, which is an expense. Another way you can look at, this is what I believe, 24, there’s 24 kennels in the old shelter, we spent $3.2 million to gain what, 12 extra kennels for dogs and nothing more for cats. Cats had it better than the other facility. So it is an enormous waste of taxpayer money and a real issue for disease, which is more money.”
The task force is convinced that if a local strategic planning committee had been formed and consulted, these infrastructure issues with the kennels could have been prevented. Tami says that she pushed for such a group to be created and was denied by the County Commission in 2017. Now, with a Phase 2 building on the plan, the task force is concerned about history repeating itself and problems being built into the fabric of the new building.
Does the shelter task force WANT a Phase 2 building? Yes, they do. Everyone is on the same page on that. A new building allows the shelter to add some needed new dog kennels. Animal Control Director Tracy Thompson, who has only been in office for six months, has great plans for that. She says if the new building is approved, they can move the dogs already in the shelter to it for a while and renovate most of the problems with the existing kennels. All of that without having to euthanize dogs in order to fix their surroundings. “I don’t want to euthanize dogs for space. That’s archaic,” said Thompson.
Thompson also explained that Eagle Scouts would be building an outdoor “catio” in the spring for cats to enjoy exercise, light and fresh air through the window of the shelter. Currently, volunteers pet the cats and get them very used to human contact. Due to the socialization that the shelter volunteers provide, cats are adopted quickly, including some of the cats that were recently featured as Get a Pet of the Week in The Citizen, like Jodi.
“There is a veterinarian standard as to how the dogs should be housed. They should have two areas, one where they can sleep and eat, and then one where they can defecate and go outside. So none of that was done in the original design. The animals were just in these very small spaces. They had no beds, and they were laying in their feces and chewing the sides of the kennels,” said Hurst-Clarke
According to Thompson and our tour of the facility, some of the layout problems mentioned by Hurst-Clarke were fixed by modifying the kennel modules. These modules aren’t perfect—for example, they don’t extend all the way to the floor, so dogs can chew on them, and dog waste can run between kennels.
These are the issues that Thompson wants to fix when the new barn is built. That will come with a pasture that she says will be built with the kind of fencing where both livestock AND dogs can utilize it. And of course, if she has new kennels put in, she can go in and fix the layout of the existing shelter—reducing the number of dogs that can be in there, but vastly improving their quality of life while they stay.
Thompson also expressed that the new shelter will be built with free-flowing air. She says that a structure like this will reduce disease among the dogs, because recycled air through an HVAC system is what spreads illnesses like kennel cough. The new building may not be as climate controlled as the current one, but she feels like healthier dogs will be more adoptable.
Animal advocate Robin Allgood iterates that she and the other members want the new facility, “We just want it built correctly because the first building was not built correctly. It was not thought through.”
How long is a stay at the shelter? According to Thompson, their longest sheltered dog has been there about 3 months. Thompson is very proud that Fayette County Animal Shelter euthanizes very few animals—only the vicious ones that Animal Control traps, that humans and vets can’t approach or take home. She’s very proud that the shelter is at about 98% of saving dogs.
What about this issue with the laundry that was mainstage in the letter to the editor from last week? Task Force member Robin Allgood did something about it, right as the letter was published. “I kept seeing the laundry piled up, piled up, piled up. I knew this was a fire hazard, so I just thought, you know what? They’ve complained about it. No one will fix this issue. So I called the fire department, the fire chief, and I told him I was calling about the animal shelter. There was an issue with the dryer that the lint was clogging the vent up because it was in an interior room, went up the wall out through the roof and the dryer would not heat because there was so much lint backed up, and it was a huge fire hazard. So I asked for a fire inspection.”
Whether it was Robin’s call, the letter to the editor, or other complaints, the county immediately had maintenance out cleaning the vent. And they’ve already ordered a new industrial washer and dryer. Thompson says she found ventless versions that won’t tax the layout of the building. And she’s ordered two sets. She said, “I’ve been super impressed with the leadership of the county, and I was skeptical because I heard all the flack coming in. I’ve been in a lot of shelters that needed turning around. That’s kind of my specialty, going in and bringing in some customer service and animal care that I’ve learned over the years. Everything I’ve asked for is either in the works or is done.”
Why was there a laundry issue just in the last six months? When Thompson came on board, with her thirty years of shelter experience, she wanted to provide a little more comfort to the animals and made sure every dog and cat had a towel or a blanket in their kennel. “There’s no reason to not give them comfort when they’re here. So we give them a blanket. They might need two a day, they might need three. Depends on if they’re a pee-er or a pooper. So that generates a lot of laundry. And sometimes we can catch up and sometimes we can’t. It got to be a trend to take pictures of all of our laundry, our dirty laundry and make it seem so horrible. It is honestly not. It’s just part of the business.”
Thompson’s comfort measures for the animals created a lot more laundry and made the laundry facilities completely ineffective for the volume of lint produced by all the dog and cat hair. It was a problem, and volunteers wound up solving it through laundry at home and laundromats, until the county stepped in this week. Soon they should have the industrial washer and dryer in place, and provided they work well, this will be a problem-that-was, not a problem-that-is.
Some of the issues the shelter had early on were around cleaning and keeping it clean. Thompson has established cleaning protocols. In our visit to the shelter, which was not previously scheduled, so nothing was “for show,” the shelter was clean. There was no smell. The dogs did not look overcrowded or miserable. There were no puppies in the puppy room, as Thompson says the Fayette County Humane Society pulls them often to adopt out at the local PetsMart. Also, they had a board set up to show how every dog gets walked every day, and fed twice a day. Kennels are cleaned while the dogs are on a walk each day. Volunteers were outside with dogs on leashes when I arrived.
The animal advocates are also concerned about the necessity of some of the spending on the barn. They thought that having space and planning for horses doesn’t make sense. Tracy Thompson disagrees. Even when she was working in downtown Atlanta at the Fulton County Shelter she had to take charge of the occasional horse. The livestock areas in the new barn are for any kind of livestock—horse, chicken, goat, pig. Even this week, Fayette County Animal Control was chasing and trying to capture four wayward sheep on the loose. That’s what the new barn would be able to accommodate. Plus, Thompson says the horse pens could also feasibly hold a dog or two when not needed by livestock. Thompson’s next budget is going to include getting a horse trailer to cart these animals around, when needed.
Thompson iterated that a washing area for horses could be used for any animal, dogs included. She says that the “tack room” is just storage, which is badly needed at the shelter now. Having seen shelves with blankets and towels overflowing in the hallways, her point was made.
County Manager Steve Rapson shared that even if animal advocates think space for livestock is unnecessary, this is what voters approved through the SPLOST. The SPLOST even references specific livestock that have to be accommodated. He said, “We’ve had mules before, we’ve had sheep before. We’ve had goats before. We’ve had pigs before. And under the Ag standards for the state, you should have a barn with X number of space. We’ve got four sheep that we’re supposed to go pick up. Because we have those type of animals, which aren’t typically the animals we have, which are dogs and cats, we have to have a different facility for them.
“When we went to the voters in the 2023 SPLOST, we articulated what that would be paid for. And in that SPLOST was a 600 square foot livestock building. There’ll also be a small pasture fence with the building. That’s what we asked the voters to approve, and that’s what the voters overwhelmingly approved.” Rapson communicated that it would be illegal to build something other than what voters approve, and that adding in the needed dog kennels is a bonus in the process, not the purpose of it.
The animal advocates are also frustrated with what they see as frivolous spending, like building a gazebo and planting expensive landscaping. Thompson leaned on her experience with that, too. She says that the Atlanta Humane Society has a gorgeous building and grounds that are a destination for those looking to adopt pets. She feels certain that if she builds the barn and surroundings of the shelter to a high standard, more people will see adopting a pet as a pleasant experience and want to rescue these animals from their kennels.
Thompson said, “People go to Atlanta Humane because it’s beautiful, not because they’re a great organization. They don’t want to go into a shelter that’s sad. They don’t want to go to Fulton County because it’s overwhelming and there’s so many dogs and even though they may want to save a dog, they just can’t handle going into a big, huge shelter. They go into a place like Atlanta Humane because they select their animals. It’s very beautiful. It’s very clean.” That’s the kind of park-like environment that Thompson wants to create at the Fayette County Animal Shelter.
Currently, the play yards for the dogs are giant mudpits, especially with our recent snow and rain. Who wants to adopt a muddy dog? This is a drainage issue on the existing shelter building that Steve Rapson and Tracy Thompson are both aware of and planning to fix in the process of this Phase 2 build.
The animal advocates believe that the kennels are inadequate, Tracy Thompson sees it differently. She says that she’s worked in seven shelters in thirty years of work. She’s seen brand new $35 million dollar shelters that still had dogs in crates in the hallway. “Shelters are a messy business,” she said. She’s seen far worse shelters within metro Atlanta.
Fayette County’s shelter was much less expensive, coming in at about $3 million dollars. The new barn building is currently budgeted at $1.2 million. Approval for the plans will come before the Fayette County Commission soon.
In the meantime, Steve Rapson said that the current kennels have been inspected by the state Agriculture Department, and they are all approved. “There’s always been some debate about the cage sizes, and I don’t know if you followed that over the last two or three years, but we’ve had the Ag people down here who regulate that, and there’s nothing wrong with the sizes of those cages. We’ve got numerous reports that they’ve sanctioned that we’re okay. I think to a large degree people view the animal control facility the same way they try to view a veterinarian’s office or our animal advocate locations and they’re not the same thing. I mean, we’re not really supposed to be set up to be a forever home for a dog.”
If you or your family would like to be a forever home for a dog or a cat from the Fayette County Animal Shelter visit 1131 Highway 74 South in Peachtree City. The shelter is open 11-5 on weekdays and 12-5 on weekends. It’s even possible to take a dog or cat home for up to two days as part of the Weekend Warrior program, and that doesn’t have to take place just over a weekend, any two days will work.
