Albany Humane Society can’t take new animals

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) – The Albany Humane Society executive board says they are working quickly, to correct violations that forced the facility to stop taking in animals. The Department of Agriculture closed their doors to new animals, and that will impact the city.

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Albany Humane Society no longer taking in animals

The Albany Humane Society was hit with several violations from the Georgia Department of Agriculture, including interior surface, pest control, including a roach infestation, and housing, to name a few of the more severe violations. Officials said they started working on correcting the violations immediately however some will take time to fix.

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Lulu Kaufman, Albany Humane Society (Facebook)

The original inspection was in August. The Ag Department officials revisited them on Wednesday.

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Once they saw not all violations were corrected, they told shelter staff no more intake of animals. They hope to get the rest of the improvements done within the next two weeks if not sooner.

“As soon as we get the few things on the list finished we will be up and in taking of animals. The shelter is open to business as usual with the exception of the intake of animals,” said Lulu Kaufman, who’s been with the board the last three years, and has never seen any violations.

The Albany Humane Society does receive county and city funding.

“The amount of money that we get from the city and the county basically covers our payroll. Anything leftover has to go to the care of animals.”

She said the rest of their funding comes from donors, and If the money isn’t there, the buildings may suffer.

However, over the Summer they got a $20,000 grant from the Atlanta Humane Society to fix their buildings, and are already putting that money to use, and Kaufman welcomes the state’s input.

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Chad Warbington, Albany Ward 4 City Commissioner

“It’s stuff that they pointed out to me that I’d never really considered so I don’t personally think of it as a bad thing I think of it as a good thing. It helps us to make improvements,” Kaufman said.

Kaufman said these violations did not impact the health of the animals at the shelter. Kauffman said as projects continue to wrap up, they hope to talk to state leaders again in the coming days about reopening sooner.

But where do the animals go now?

“Our animal control is still active. we’re still serving citizens. We’re having to work with our neighboring counties to find places to shelter animals because we can’t bring animals to the humane society so it’s definitely unfortunate. It’s really putting the city in a bind,” said Ward 4 Commissioner Chad Warbington.

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