x
Breaking News
More () »

'Animal cruelty should never be part of any shelter': Laurens County Animal Control shut down by state

A spokesman for the State Agriculture Department would not comment on why the shelter is closed except to say the state has an open investigation.

LAURENS COUNTY, Ga. — Two weeks ago, Laurens County Animal Control administrator Bryan Rogers made a claim that one of the dogs at the shelter that was emaciated got that way because the family originally fed the dog table scraps.

Two women initially reached out to 13WMAZ about problems with the county's animal control.

Maci Raffield is one of several people who contacted us initially about problems with Laurens County Animal Control.

"The statements that were made by the county administration are very untrue. As far as Dixie getting fed nothing but table scraps, that's a ludicrous excuse for her condition she ended up in while in their care," Raffield said.

Raffield says her family signed off on euthanization papers for their pit bull Dixie after a relative was injured breaking up a fight.

Weeks later, they found out from an activist organization on Facebook their dog was still alive but had lost a lot of weight.

"I'm hoping that they go forward with filing charges on the people who were held responsible for these animals. I feel like more needs to be done than just closing down the facility," Raffield said.

Catherine Wood runs an activist group called Rock on Rescue. She says she's had concerns about Laurens County Animal Control for at least 15 years. In January, she rescued an emaciated dog that was at animal control for 40 days.

"Was so emaciated he could almost not walk. He was off-balance. He was emaciated to the point of when I first saw him on January 7th, I looked at him and said, 'Somebody needs accountability, something needs to be done,'" Wood said.

Bo Warren, spokesman for the state agriculture department would not comment on why the shelter is closed except to say the state has an open investigation. 

Wood is happy to see that a change is being made.

"Georgia Department of Agriculture, in this situation, did the right thing. They took action, and animal cruelty should never be part of any shelter," Wood said.

Two weeks ago, county administrator Bryan Rogers denied there were problems at the shelter. He said the local critics were spreading "misinformation." Rogers did not return our phone calls Tuesday.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture says there should be an update in a few days.

Before You Leave, Check This Out