DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County’s CEO is getting support from an unlikely place to do away with the county’s shelter’s no-kill policy.
PETA, or the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told Channel 2 investigative reporter Sophia Choi that it is all for it.
When the shelter was built in July 2017, DeKalb County leaders touted it as state of the art, with plenty of room for animals.
Six years later, it’s over-run with conditions so bad the state agriculture department is now looking into it.
PETA said no-kill policies end up leading to more problems that ultimately end up hurting the animals in the end.
“100%. These no-kill policies are causing overcrowding, they are preventing shelters from making responsible decisions, and animals are suffering,” Daphna Nachminovitch with PETA said.
Choi took a tour Tuesday of the facility in Chamblee with county CEO Michael Thurmond and members of LifeLine Animal Project, the group contracted to run DeKalb’s shelters.
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Thurmond first talked about possibly doing away with the no-kill policy during an exclusive Channel 2 Action News interview last week.
“I’m not searching for a culprit, I’m searching for a solution,” Thurmond told Choi. “All ideas are on the table. I’m fact-finding.”
Another problem is you have breeds of animals that many people see as problematic.
“You’ve got mostly pit bull-type dogs who have been discarded by someone and they are very hard to place,” Nachminovitch said.
LifeLine Animal Project said PETA is usually always against no-kill shelters, unlike a lot of other animal rights groups, including Best Friends Animal Society.
Thurmond is meeting with lifeLine representatives on Wednesday in hopes of agreeing to a solution to a problem he said is caused primarily by inflation.
Already, the county is putting up $10 million to help financially struggling families keep their pets and to temporarily expand the shelter with annexes.
PETA said one of the best ways to really prevent overcrowding at shelters is to issue an emergency moratorium on breeding and buying from pet shops or breeders.
After the tour Tuesday, Thurmond told Choi that he’s now considering adding more money, to increase free spay and neutering services.
“It could increase, particularly if we can prevent animals from being born, become homeless and ending up in the shelter,” Thurmond said.
LifeLine Animal Project manages the Fulton and DeKalb County animal services shelters, two of the largest county shelters in metro Atlanta.
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