Community responds to DeKalb Co. animal shelter call for adoptions

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Hundreds of dogs found homes when people turned out in droves at DeKalb County Animal Services a week after the shelter announced the animals faced euthanizing if space could not be freed up by Jan. 31.

LifeLine Animal Project, the organization that manages DeKalb County Animal Services and Fulton County Animal Services said it needed to remove 150 dogs from the shelter by the end of January. On Jan. 31, the nonprofit said 345 canines had found new or temporary homes. At the Fulton County shelter, 89 dogs found new homes.

LifeLine runs no-kill shelters, but the cramped situation prompted drastic action.

“We’re no-kill shelters, we euthanize less than 10 percent of the animals,” said Timyka Artist, LifeLine Animal Project public relations manager. “This is the first time we’ve had to euthanize for space.”

The DeKalb County shelter, located on Chamblee Dunwoody Road in Chamblee, can hold about 450 dogs. Over the past year, it has housed around 600.

In Fulton County, the situation is worse. The shelter on Marietta Boulevard in Atlanta can hold 85 dogs but has more than 300 in its care. The hallways are lined with crates for the overflow.

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A dog jumps up against the window at people who pass through the halls of DeKalb County Animal Services on Jan. 27. The shelter announced they would have to euthanize some of their dogs if they could not adopt or foster 150 of them by Jan. 31.

“We’ve been at critical capacity for over a year,” Artist said.

LifeLine tried other solutions to help with overcrowding, like opening a pop-up dog adoption center on Howell Mill Road

See SHELTER, Page 6