NEWTON COUNTY, GA - Newton County Animal Control celebrated a milestone as Holly, a Rottweiler, boarded a van to leave the shelter Wednesday afternoon.
Holly is the 500th dog or cat to board a transport van to be sterilized or transferred to a rescue group since May because of the partnership between Newton County Animal Control and Planned Pethood. Holly will go to her new home spayed thanks to the partnership that began in May when Newton County became the pilot shelter for a new program and beneficiary of a $5,000 grant for rabies vaccinations and spaying and neutering.
Since then Planned Pethood received another $48,000 grant to benefit Newton County, and received backing from the Board of Commissioners (BOC) to increase adoption fees to sterilize all animals that leave the shelter for adoptions or reclamations.
This partnership has been one of several programs which helped Newton County make tremendous strides in seeing dogs or cats that come into the shelter leave to good homes.
“Planned pethood has helped Newton County animals in many ways,” said Cindy Wiemann, Newton County Animal Control Director. “Their weekly transports have allowed for Newton County to offer pets for adoption that have already been spayed or neutered and have provided transportation to rescue groups for close to 200 dogs and cats.”
In total, the Newton County Animal Control has helped 1,233 dogs or cats find homes through adoptions and pet rescues since January 1, 2019.
“Watching the pets in our care leave with their adopted families or catch a ride on the Planed Pethood bus to rescue groups to find new homes makes the difficult job of our Animal Control Officers much easier.” Wiemann said.
Wiemann has overseen the shelter increase its live-release rate 40 percent in the two years since she was hired as Animal Control Director of Newton County.
To achieve this reduction in euthanasia and increase in dogs and cats in Newton County finding homes, Wiemann has implemented several programs with support of the BOC, including:
- Shelter Buddy software to upload available pets to www.adoptapet.com and www.petfinder.com
- Planned Pethood sterilization and transfers
- Petsense partnership to offer cats and kittens from Newton County Animal Control for adoption at the store located at 3119 Hwy 278 NE. More than 80 cats and kittens have found new homes through this partnership.
The Newton County Animal Shelter has another big milestone coming in the near future when ground is broken on a renovation and expansion. The expansion, which was funded by $1,199,488 from the 2017 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, $350,000 from the County’s Capital Improvement Fund and $100,000 from an anonymous donor.
The expansion is in its design phase now and is expected to be completed in 2020.
“We are excited about the direction of the Newton County Animal Control,” Newton County Chairman Marcello Banes said. “Newton County residents and the Board of Commissioners want our Animal Shelter to be something we can all be proud of and we are definitely on that path.”
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For more information about Newton County, please visit www.ncboc.com, like Newton County, Ga on Facebook or follow @NewtonCounty on Twitter.