DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Significant relief has come to a metro Atlanta animal shelter that has struggled with overcrowding for years.
Officials cut the ribbon on a $4.1 million expansion of the DeKalb County Animal Services shelter off Chamblee Dunwoody Road.
Most of the funding came from a special-purpose local option sales tax.
The expansion is called a “pet neighborhood” and includes ten prefabricated, climate-controlled buildings. Located next to the main shelter, each building can each house 12 dogs.
DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said the neighborhood greatly eases the pressure on the shelter.
“It has stopped the hemorrhaging, and now, although we’re at capacity, we’re not overflowing,” she said. “Truly, when you make these investments, it shows where your heart is and what your priorities are,” she said.
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The main shelter was built to comfortably accommodate about 220 dogs, but it typically houses double that number. It has dealt with chronic overcrowding since the COVID-19 pandemic and makes frequent public appeals for adoption to avoid euthanasia.
It currently shelters about 600 animals, most of them dogs.
Cochran-Johnson said the county has a remaining $5 million in SPLOST funds available to additional shelter improvements.
“And I just want to say it’s bigger than just housing,” Cochran-Johnson said. “This is also about creating legislation that helps us with spaying and neutering of animals, as well as providing overall support.”
The county is also working to reduce the number of animals sheltered as evidence in animal cruelty cases, which contributes to the overcrowding.
DeKalb County commissioner Michelle Long Spears said the expansion reflects the county’s commitment to the humane treatment of animals.
“It says what we value in our community, and we have sent a very powerful message to metro Atlanta, to Georgia, to the whole country, that animals matter in DeKalb County,” she said.