DeKalb Animal Services 2012
Budget: $2.76 million
Animals brought to shelter: 7,766
Animals euthanized: 3,101
DeKalb Animal Services 2013
Budget: $3 million
Animals brought to shelter: 988*
Animals euthanized: 297*
*From Jan. 1 to March 19.
Source: DeKalb County
Faced with constant public pressure to improve its handling of stray and unwanted pets, DeKalb County is trying to speed up plans for a new animal shelter.
But concerns from a county commissioner from South DeKalb on Tuesday convinced the board’s budget committee to slow down a proposal to move $2.75 million in federal stimulus money into seed money to design and build a new shelter.
Her main objection: that the proposed 5-acre site adjacent to DeKalb-Peachtree Airport is in the city of Chamblee.
“I don’t see that as being very central,” Sharon Barnes Sutton said. “I’d like to see some other locations and recommendations.”
The land next to the airport, a former subdivision razed more than a decade ago when federal aviation authorities determined that it is in a protected zone, is the top site choice in a 2012 citizen task force report on DeKalb animal services.
The report was especially damning about the shelter, calling the dilapidated building off Memorial Drive a “chamber of horrors” where humans and animals alike suffered amid bug infestations, mold and other problems.
Still, county officials expected a new shelter would be delayed until at least late 2014, in part because of struggles to find a large enough parcel with easy access.
The estimated $7.5 million price tag of a new facility also seemed a pipe dream for a department whose annual budget inched up to $3 million this year from $2.76 million last year.
Commissioner Jeff Rader, though, recently proposed moving the stimulus cash, which was originally intended for a new police precinct in North DeKalb that is no longer needed because of the incorporation of Brookhaven.
That money, combined with $600,000 already in the budget to seed a new shelter, would cover design and site work this year. At the same time, $1.2 million in funds seized during law enforcement operations, usually drug busts, will be used to start making upgrades to existing police stations.
“It’s a good faith demonstration to us committing resources to the priorities of our community,” Rader said. “It’s a good down payment.”
It also helps CEO Burrell Ellis meet a promise to animal advocates, who have repeatedly shown up to county meetings and held rallies to draw attention to their cause.
Ellis and commissioners have used the task force report as a guideline to make several changes in the past year. Last summer, the county hired 10 new animal control officers and added Sunday adoption hours to its current shelter.
It hired a new department director last fall and just last month agreed to outsource shelter operations to a nonprofit animal advocacy group. The $2 million annual contract with LifeLine Animal Project is expected to begin by summer.
Smaller-scale changes — such as spaying or neutering neighborhood cats and returning them to the community if residents agree, and launching dog-training classes with volunteers at the shelter — have also paid off.
DeKalb did not euthanize any cats in January, according to county records. On Sunday, a dog that had been held at the shelter for nearly two years was adopted, and its new owner received a voucher for unlimited training classes.
“It’s been a long process,” said Sonali Saindane, who runs the Decatur High School club that raised money for the training classes. “A lot of promises have been made and then broken. Now is the time to change the definition of what a shelter can be.”
Gwinnett and Fulton counties have faced similar resident pressure to increase adoptions and reduce the number of animals euthanized. They, like most metro Atlanta counties, have long euthanized about six out of every 10 pets they bring in.
DeKalb has made strides in reducing its euthanasia rate to about 40 percent last year and to 30 percent so far this year, said Chief Operating Officer Zachary Williams.
Williams said those results stem from increased efforts from the CEO and commissioners to work together on mutual priorities. Likewise, both sides expect to reach an agreement on the new shelter and its location by April.
“We have significant agreement to get this done,” he said. “We will have the region’s state-of-the-art facility and we will provide state-of-the-art service.”
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