Budget Cuts Do Not Affect Cobb Animal Control
"17,000 animals pass through the doors of the Cobb County Animal Shelter yearly. Of those we adopt out about 6,000." - Public Safety Cpt. Jeff Patellis:
Videos
Public Safety Cpt. Jeff Patellis gave residents an overview of Cobb County Animal Shelter operations at Commissioner JoAnn Birrell's town hall meeting last Thursday.
Patellis described the state-of-the art surgical facility at CCAC where pets are spayed and neutered to help control the animal population. All animals receive a rabies vaccination administered by the veterinarian.
Cobb County is one of the few Georgia counties to have a full-time veterinarian on staff.
Patellis describes shelter operations and the surgical facility in this article's accompanying videos.
Editor's Note: Vicki Hammond, who has covered the happenings and animals at Cobb County Animal Control each and every week since Smyrna-Vinings Patch launched in late November, offered the following comment after viewing the videos:
"The numbers are staggering. One pass through the shelter and you will see how truly wonderful all these animals are. What wasn't mentioned by Cpt. Patellis is the number of owner turn ins (OTI). I would be interested to see how many of the 17,000 are OTIs. I was there yesterday and Lilly, a 14-year-old cat, was turned in by her owner. Sandy, a 16-year-old dog, was dropped off recently too. These are not isolated cases.
"I would like to see money used to help people keep their animals (low cost vet care and food pantry), foster programs established to give some of the animals at the shelter a temporary home, a stronger volunteer program for support, more money from court fines (traffic court, misdemeanor cases, etc.) used to fund programs, and a one time (small) license fee for spay/neutered pets (but yearly registration which would make it easier for CCAC to find owners of stray animals) and for those that choose not to spay/neuter, a substantial annual fee along with yearly registration. Mandatory microchipping might also be a good option.
"Cpt. Patellis and staff do a fine job with the way things are set up at the present time. Are there areas of improvement? Sure. However, they are willing to consider new ways and that's the first step. I believe they are all tired of seeing animals die needlessly. Thank you Julia for covering this topic.''
Fran
10:02 am on Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Thank you to Capt. Patellis and his staff for managing a tough situation with record numbers of owner turn ins. It is hard for me to understand someone turning in an older or infirmed family pet, thinking it will get adopted out from a/c. The reality is that most likely it won't. Rescues have a hard time placing seniors and their budgets do not allow for them taking in too many sick or injured animals. You adopted that family pet and took on the responsibilty of pet ownership, and when the pet most needs your help, you take it to animal control. Imagine the fear and confusion that animal faces as you walk away. Hats off to those folks who do go to a/c to adopt and actually look for a special needs or "senior" companion. Wish there more like you. Please think twice and try to find another alternative for your pet -training if it is behavioral, food banks if it is providing food, talk to your vet about medical issues and expenses. If you have a friend or relative or neighbor you know is going to take an animal to the shelter, see if you can help them look at other alternatives. While it sometimes takes a village to raise a child, the same is true about our pets.......sometimes it takes a village to help them too.
M
10:29 pm on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
I was there for one hour last week and 4 dogs were turned in by owners. One was a beautiful GSD being dumped by his human dad who was a EMT and in uniform. I lost respect for him instantly. The others I do not know he stories but they were OTI's. Sadly these dogs will most likely never make it out again b/c they already had over 300 dogs waiting for new homes and very little space. While there a few people came in looking for their lost pets who ran off on July 4th but only one kid was looking to adopt and he walked out enpty handed b/c he had a specific breed and age in mind. I tried to talk to him about not limiting himself but it fell on deaf ears. :(