"This is an important issue for our County across North and South DeKalb — impacts all animals and pets and if the funding is already in place (SPLOST), there’s no reason the project should be prolonged! I support expansion of the animal shelter so that we can accommodate the overcrowding — with the understanding that a lot of the challenges are residual impacts from the pandemic and folks unable or unwilling to take care of their pets. Like humans, pets deserve to be treated and cared for humanely!"
“The legislation has already been introduced to the DeKalb Board of Commissioners and a presentation has been made to the board, both of which I have read and sat through. There is a real need to regulate these issues so that we can ensure the safety of our animals and to curb the issue. In particular to hear the stories of sick animals being sold because of the lack of legislation that does not regulate or provide repercussions for such actions motivates me to address the issue even more!”
"The Director position has been vacant for some time and there is a need to fill the position. Leadership starts from the top down and a clear vision for the department cannot be adequately set if the permanent leader is not in place. In addition, proper training and certification will not only ensure that we have the proper folks on the ground addressing the issues — it will insure that they have latest and greatest training and certification to better serve DeKalb citizens and animals. I want DeKalb to be a place where we are seen for being the leader in addressing such issues and with this issue being perpetuated across the country — we can certainly take the lead in this area and one of the best ways to do that is to hire and train our staff to the highest standards possible!"
"Training and certification alone are no good without proper and competitive pay to keep the highly trained individuals in the department. With overcrowding comes understaffing. We must ensure that the working conditions are safe for the staff and one of the first ways to ensure that is to make sure that the shelter is adequately staffed ! Another way is to ensure that the staff feels appreciated and the morale is high — by ensuring that we are on par with the NACA standards for pay."
"I’ve personally seen the impacts of such services provided to the community. Not only does it help to remove the burden in some cases — but is shows that the County values our pets and pet owners. I’d like to see such services offered across DeKalb on an ongoing basis!"
“Court held animals make up a large portion of the animals housed at the animal shelter. The overburden of the system can be addressed by having a better process that reduces the stay court held animals.”