DeKalb County Animal Shelter to get $10M to fight overcrowding crisis

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - DeKalb County plans to spend $10 million to help ease extreme overcrowding at its animal shelter.

The DeKalb County Animal Shelter currently houses around 600 dogs. Hundreds more are fostered around the county.

Parker Bock came into the shelter Monday to find another best friend after one of his dogs passed away recently. He couldn’t help but notice how crowded it was.

"I know how many dogs are here, unfortunately, and I'd love to save them all if I really could," Bock said.

Andrea Seidl, a volunteer at the shelter and one of the leaders of Advocates for DeKalb Animals, says the shelter is completely full.

"They're managing it now at an absolute, absolute maximum of approximately 600 dogs … and what they've done is they've taken every available space, and they've added kennels to it. So there were these rooms - bonding rooms - where you could go and sit with a dog for some quiet time. Not anymore. Those bonding rooms all have kennels in them," Seidl said.

Seidl says her group has been pushing DeKalb County leaders to take action since June.

"We got involved in a big way. We did email campaigns, letter writing campaigns. We showed up in force at meetings," she said.

And county leaders listened.

DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond announced a $10 million plan to help ease overcrowding, which was approved by the County Commission in September.

One of the action items is $1.6 million for an overflow facility at the shelter.

"From what I understand, it's going to be sort of a modular facility. It is literally intended to be temporary so that we can manage the dogs we have without having to euthanize at the rate that we're euthanizing now," Seidl said.

Other items include $200,000 worth of aid to pet owners who can’t afford to feed and take care of pets, so they don’t feel forced to give them up, and $140,000 for a mobile vet clinic that will visit areas in need of free care.

"I feel like they did listen, and I feel like they are listening. But like I said, it's a good start … $10 million is a good start. There's lots of work to be done … they either need a second facility or they need to expand this facility," Seidl said.

According to a release from Thurmond, the plan includes $7.5 million that would be funded by a special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) that will be decided next month by DeKalb voters.