10 days ago
Peach County is making plans to fix its animal control problem.
County leaders and leaders from the city of Byron visited the Hawkinsville Shelter in Pulaski County to get ideas on building a county-wide shelter.
They say the county is long overdue.
"We just have a lot of abandoned animals," says Martin Moseley with the Peach County Commission. 'We have people who don't look after their animals properly--just let them wander around. It's just an ongoing and nagging problem in Peach County."
Peach County's lack of an animal control unit has been a problem for years, and Moseley says it's time to see advice on putting a leash on their animal control problem.
"We've been under pressure from some of our citizens for the last several years to get something started in Peach County, says Moseley.
Moseley says the county has saved $400,000 through a local sales tax, and it's seeking tips from neighboring counties on creating a county-wide animal control unit.
Moseley says the project is still in the planning stages but could be a partnership among Peach County, Byron, and Fort Valley.
Byron is interested in getting on board, according to Mayor Pro Tem Michael Chidester. He says people usually call the police or sheriff's office with animal problems because no one's really in charge.
"The idea is to have someone on call in the county all the time whose job it is to deal with animals and nothing else," says Chidester.
Stretching animal control resources across a county is possible, says Sarah Anderson, who runs Hawkinsville's and Pulaski County's shared unit.
"Financially they can design it in stages so they can accommodate where they are now and where they project to be in five to ten years," says Anderson.
Moseley says they'll look at other shelters in Central Georgia, but it could be a year before Peach County has an animal control shelter of its own.
Fort Valley mayor John Stumbo says the city has not decided whether it wants to be a part of county-wide animal control.
Stumbo says they have an established animal control unit with one office on call at all times.
