ABOUT HARALSON COUNTY ANIMAL CONTROL

Haralson County Animal Control started with a vision from some of the citizens of the county and a sole Commissioner, Charles Sanders.  In the year 2004, the shelter was constructed after a S.P.L.O.S.T. vote from the citizens of the county.  The county never had a shelter and it was needed to control the over population of the many animals that were roaming.  In November of 2004, a five man Commission Board was voted in and took over the process of getting the shelter finished and running in January 2005.  One of the Commissioner’s, Vance Posey, took the responsibility of getting the shelter completed.  Since the county never had a shelter and did not know how to operate one, he went to surrounding county shelters to see what was needed to get it operating.  One shelter he visited was Paulding County Animal Shelter, in Dallas, GA.  There he met Mike Pope, who was the Kennel Supervisor.  After a few months, Vance offered Mike the job of Haralson County Animal Control Director.  Mike came on board on June 1, 2005 and with an empty building, began the process of building the county Animal Control Ordinances and filling the shelter with all of the things to make it run.  Mike hired a Road Officer/Supervisor, a Road Officer, three Kennel Technicians and a Receptionist to help with running the shelter.  The employees do various jobs that range from cleaning and caring for the animals to finding homes for them.  The shelter works with rescue groups that are licensed to take animals and find homes for them.  They also have ads in the local newspapers to help find homes for the animals.  As hard as the shelter works to find families for the homeless animals, euthanizing is part of a weekly process that the shelter has to deal with.  Until the careless and irresponsible pet owners of this county cease in the over-breeding of animals, this will continue to be part of our weekly job.  Remember, pet ownership is a privilege, and animals are hopeless without each and every one of us helping them.   

WHAT WE DO:

·          Answer complaints from residents of Haralson County concerning stray animals or neighbors animals who are violating the leash law.

·          Retrieve and house stray or lost animals.

·          Try to locate owner of the animal, if a tag is on animal,.

·          Advise pet owners of County Animal Control laws.

·          Serve warnings and/or citations to ordinance violators.

·          Appear in court on citations issued to ordinance violators.

·          Investigate animal cruelty calls and take appropriate measures to correct the situation.

·          Advise and enforce the State Laws of Georgia to the residence of Haralson County.

·          Handle lost and found animal calls.

·          Adopt unwanted or unclaimed animals to new homes.

·          Answer calls for injured stray animals.

·          Respond to calls of loose livestock or livestock in the roadway.

·          Coordinate with schools and local civic organizations for volunteer and educational projects.

·          Offer low costs spay and neuter information to the general public.

·          Respond to all animal bites to humans, called into us by the victim, hospital or law enforcement.

·          Responsible for making sure any animal that bites a human is quarantined for rabies observation for 10 days.

·          Responsible for transporting possible rabies specimen to be shipped to the CDC laboratory for rabies testing.

·          Send a monthly report to the County Health Department of the number of bites to people and if any possible rabid specimens where sent to the CDC and the results of all specimens.

·          Investigate any possible rabid animals, including wildlife.

·          Euthanize any unwanted or unclaimed animals in our custody after they have been here 7 days or longer.  (Injured, sick or wild animals can be euthanized immediately)

·          Offer the use of free humane traps for the capture of animals that are causing a nuisance or dangerous situation to citizens of Haralson County.  (There is a $25.00 deposit required on cat traps and a $50.00 deposit on dog traps, which is refundable upon return of the trap undamaged.)

·          Complete license inspections on breeders, kennel operators, pet establishments and boarders.