Hall County Commissioners approved a resolution and added several new positions to the county's animal shelter after a presentation on the current state of the shelter Thursday.
Carrie Ducote, the senior manager for Best Friends Animal Society of Georgia, showed commissioners the findings of a study of the county's shelter made by the society in December. She said that 63 percent of dogs and cats brought in to the county shelter are released alive, while 37 percent do not survive, with many dying by euthanasia.
The report also showed a large discrepancy in the percentage of dogs that are released alive compared to cats. Ducote said the society found that 81 percent of dogs were released alive during the study, compared to only 45 percent of cats.
Ducote said that while the county's "live release" rate had improved since 2015, the society recommended several new initiatives to help get the rates closer to the society's goal of 90 percent for both dogs and cats. Among those was adding a volunteer and foster coordinator position and instituting a "community cats" program, which would encourage vaccinating, sterilizing and releasing cats rather than euthanizing them.
After the presentation, Hall County commissioners voted to approve a resolution to accept Best Friends' recommendations, with District Four Commissioner Jeff Stowe making a motion to adopt each of the suggestions. Stowe's motion was approved unanimously.
Hall County Administrator Jock Connell said that the county was grateful for the society's input on its shelter.
"I think the findings were highly productive," Connell said. "Their findings are the things that we need to do to bring down to the euthanasia rates and try to get to 90 percent live outcome."
He said the county reached out to Best Friends' for the study after receiving some complaints from citizens.
"I'm not going to say all that criticism was warranted, but as we began to look, we began to see we probably had some areas for improvement," Connell said. "We had too many non-live outcomes, particularly in the area of cats."
Several residents spoke after Ducote's presentation in support of the society's recommendations. No one spoke against the changes, which also include increased staff for the shelter's kennels.
The full assessment of the Hall County shelter by Best Friends Animal Society of Georgia cna be found on the county's website.
