One Score you Want to be Below Average

If you’re a Georgia resident, you’ve probably heard of Rockdale County. It’s located on the East side of metro Atlanta, with I-20 running right through its middle. Conyers is its county seat, and it boasts lots of outdoor recreational areas, as well as the Georgia International Horse Park, site of the 1996 Olympic Equestrian events. It also has an Animal Control facility that kills 54% of the animals that come through its doors. That’s right, out of every 100 lost puppies or stray cats, you can pick 54 of them that won’t leave the shelter alive.

Are you shocked? Horrified at this statistic? Angry with the Rockdale officials who kill all these innocent creatures? Don’t be. 54% is the AVERAGE percentage among all Animal Control shelters in the 28 counties that make up “Metro Atlanta.” It could be worse. Those animals could end up in Lamar County, which put down an astonishing 97% in 2007. The LUCKIEST animals in our metro area are in Heard County, where only 14% don’t make it out.

These numbers, from 2007, are found in a newly published report by the Georgia Voters for Animal Welfare (GVAW), a small group of volunteers who took it upon themselves to compile these statistics for every Georgia county. The state doesn’t keep track, so it’s up to every county to keep their own numbers and disclose them – or not. Four of the 28 metro counties would just rather not say how many dogs and cats are surrendered or picked up, or euthanized.

Now, I’m not going to get on a rant about our government not making this information public, or even lament the untold millions of tax dollars that keep these shelters in operation. What bothers me the most is that it’s considered “necessary” by anyone, anywhere, to kill dogs and cats in order to control their population. It is NOT necessary. What’s necessary is for people to wake up and understand that we are ALL contributing to this tragedy, and the solution is simple: SPAY OR NEUTER YOUR PET. Heck, don’t stop there, spay or neuter someone else’s pet. Trap that stray cat that’s been hanging around your office and get him neutered. Talk to that person down the street whose “mama dog” keeps getting out of the fence. Educate acquaintances who are considering buying a new puppy about rescue options, and the horrors of puppy mills. Show your purebred-loving friends pictures of your wonderful mixed-breed cat. DO SOMETHING to stop this senseless pattern of killing.

If you’re a Rockdale County resident or official reading this, I’m sorry I picked on you. You just happened to land in the middle of the numbers. Now, get out there and move your county to the bottom of the next list. This is one score that you should really want to be “below average.”

(Here is a link to the complete report by GVAW, which gives the results of their polling of 159 county shelters and 88 other local/city shelters. The reference to 28 counties in the blog above refers to the area designated as “metro Atlanta” by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.)