FAYETTE COUNTY, Ga. — A newly constructed animal shelter in Fayette County is under fire again after advocates packed Tuesday's board of commissioners meeting to voice concerns over animal safety.
“We the citizens trusted you, our elected officials, to use our tax dollars to build a new safe animal shelter, instead, we got a prison,” one resident said during the public comment portion.
Another resident showed photos of the enclosures, stating that they were so small that they were harming the very animals they aimed to rescue.
“Here is a large dog in a single-compartment enclosure, with an internal dimension of less than three or four feet," a resident said at the meeting, "There is blood present in the back of the wall from injuries sustained because the enclosure was too small."
But one official said they are listening to residents.
"We’re taking that input and we’re going to incorporate it into changes that we’ve made," Fayette County Manager Steve Rapson said. "We’ve already done a lot of those changes so we’re just getting their input so we can make the shelter better."
Recent adjustments made at the shelter removed a wall separating some kennels to create a larger space for bigger dogs. This decreased the overall number of kennels from 32 to 24.
However, residents said that's not the only issue, stating that animals spend about 23 hours inside their cages since the new kennels don't allow outdoor spaces.
“We don’t feel heard, we basically moved from the old shelter to this shelter to better the lives of animals and the lives of the animals are not as good as they were before,” Cynthia Saracino, an animal advocate, said.
The shelter cost the community $3.2 million to create more space for the animals since their previous shelter only had 16 kennels.