Macon to explore private solution to animal control
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After receiving requests for additional staffing at the Macon County Animal Shelter, commissioners have decided to see if they might be able to contract the county’s animal control services out to a private company.
“One of the topics that was brought up at the last meeting, we talked about animal services and the shelter operations and whether that could be facilitated by another outside agency, by contract, or some other method,” said Interim County Manager Warren Cabe during the Jan. 14 commissioners meeting.
Cabe asked for a consensus from the board to move forward with exploring what options are available to the county and whether there are any interested parties.
“Then we can come back to you in the future with some kind of a report on whether or not we think that’s possible and what your options might be,” Cabe said.
The board gave its unanimous consensus at the January meeting for Cabe to move ahead with explorations for contracting animal control services to an outside agency.
This idea was first brought up during the board’s December meeting, when Public Health Director Kathy McGaha came before the board to request additional staff at the animal shelter. During the ensuing discussion, Commissioner John Shearl asked whether the county could lease its facility and outsource animal control operations toa private organization.
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At that time, McGaha said that most companies and counties that work in animal control are at or over capacity. Issues created by things like COVID and flooding from Hurricane Helene have caused already stressed animal control systems and animal shelters to depend more on volunteers who can shelter animals in their own homes.
The request for additional staff arose from a group of animal shelter volunteers that had brought their concerns to the Macon County Board of Health.
“They pointed out a number of things of concern to the members of the Board of Health and so we asked the staff to do a complete dive into the operation, look at all the items that were brought up and look at in general where we are, where we’re going, what changes we’ve seen in the animal control effort that we’ve had in the last five or six years or so,” Board of Health Chairman Jerry Hermanson told commissioners during their Dec. 10 meeting.
Commissioners did not vote on a request for additional staffing at their December meeting but instead suggested that a complete overhaul of animal control may be necessary.
