Fee added to assist animal control

By Staff
Jonathan Willis
The Franklin County Commission voted Tuesday to implement a $5 per head charge for all out-of-county animals dropped off at the county animal control office.
Animal control officer Grady Parrish said the shelter takes in about 200 animals each month and a large portion of those are coming from outside the county.
"The biggest problem we are having is that so many are coming from Walker and Marion counties," Parrish said. "Evidently, they don't have shelters there."
The office keeps an animal for five working days after they are brought in. If a new home is not found after that time, the animals are euthanized.
Many of the animals are dropped off at the shelter on weekends when no one is on site. But, officials hope the $5 fee will work with those who bring the animals in during the week.
"Every Monday we are loaded down with them," Parrish said. "They come in 15 to 20 animals at a time. Most all of them are puppies."
Parrish said he has seen a decrease in the number of dogs the office picks up throughout Franklin County, but the dogs brought in from other counties are what has become the problem.
"That's killing us," Parrish said. "The only good thing is that people are bringing them in instead of just dropping them off on the county roads."
Parrish said the only way to ease the problem is to find a cheaper spay/neuter program.
"It's the people's responsibility to take care of them, but that's not what they are doing," he said.
In other business, the commission: