Seven dogs are available for adoption at the Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter after being rescued from the area surrounding an abandoned mobile home on Benton Road in Carlton.
Five Oglethorpe County women were able to catch the dogs on Sunday, about 32 days after a man living at the home was hospitalized on June 26.
“We had told the (neighbors) feeding the dogs to not feed them the night before, so they were pretty hungry by the time we got there,” said Christy Champagne, a former Athens-Clarke County Animal Services supervisor and current MOAS board member. “They just started going in their humane, live traps, one by one. As soon as we had a couple, we would take (them) to MOAS, come back and reset the traps.”
Leslie Benton, who lives on Benton Road, told The Oglethorpe Echo last week that she had fed the dogs about 80 pounds of food.
Champagne said the dogs were “pretty friendly,” but likely don’t trust people.
“They’re scared silly,” she said, “and they’ve been on their own for a month. … They’ve probably never been inside before.”
Neighbors contacted the Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office and spoke to a deputy on July 21, but were told “(the Sheriff’s Office’s) hands are tied,” according to James Bennett, who lives about a half-mile from the property.
Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Sharp said he had heard about the dogs, but there was little he could do.
“Because I’m a county official, I have nowhere to take the dogs,” he said last week. “(Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter) won’t take them from a county official.”
Oglethorpe County Code of Ordinances allows the Sheriff’s Office, Sharp or other designated “dog control officers” to impound abandoned dogs, but does not require it.
“Licensed rescue organizations are strictly prohibited from performing animal control services unless said rescue has an active contract to perform such services on behalf of a county, a municipal corporation, or any other political subdivision of the state.”
Stephanie Maro, Fern Williams and two women who Champagne “knew from (her) past” helped rescue the dogs.
Williams filed a writ of mandamus against the Oglethorpe County Board of Commissioners in May calling for the BOC to construct a dog impoundment facility and strengthen its animal control policies, among other things.
The writ was dismissed early last month.