By the Concerned Animal Crusaders of Athens
It is official, Athens-Clarke County Animal Services received their first litter of kittens a few days ago.
With a warm winter, kitten season is starting earlier this year. The big question is Athens-Clarke County ready for kitten season or will things prove to be an utter disaster for the animals as it has been the last two years?
Stakeholders and volunteers continue to be concerned by lack of staffing and vaccine and intake protocols not being consistently followed. Additionally, even after intense outrage expressed by the Athens animal community, the previous shelter administrator responsible for needlessly killing 31-plus cats and kittens due to an unconfirmed panleuk outbreak is still a supervisor at the shelter and continues to make decisions impacting the lives of the shelter animals.
On the plus side, after approximately five months, a new director has been named and has started this week and the county's Office of Operational Analysis has started their comprehensive audit. The first step of this audit process is a survey. We are asking all members of the public to complete this survey if they had any dealings with Athens-Clarke County Animal Services (formerly known as Animal Control) in the last few years. Survey deadline is March 20. The link is included below: