Alapaha Animal Control

This is a "FYI" type of post: We are seeing, hearing, and getting alot of calls from people that are trying to "do good" by an animal that's possibly a stray by picking it up and getting it to safety by taking it home with them. While we understand why someone will do this and for the most part we don't have an issue with it, it is ILLEGAL for ANYONE (including licensed Animal Rescues to pick up a stray animal unless you are an Animal Control Officer that is licensed by the G...a. Dept of Ag and contracted by the county and city of which the animal is in to pick up an animal! It is also ILLEGAL for anyone to trap animals for this purpose! The proper and LEGAL process to handle a situation like this is to contact animal control to pick up the animal at the location of which the animal is originally seen. If an animal comes up to your home and you live in a county that has an animal shelter that accepts animals from individuals then you can take the animal to the shelter. An animal in the State of Georgia is considered to be personal property and unfortunately, not all counties have leash laws; therefore, by picking an animal and trying to "do good" could in reality cause charges to be pressed against a person for this by an owner someday. I know it's sad, but not everyone will view the act of kindness toward the animal as such because this is the kind of world we live in today. Another purpose of such laws in Georgia is because a stray animal has to go through a "stray hold" time period. This time period varies per county. Some counties it's 3 days, others it's 4 or 5 days. Some counties even have 7 to 10 day stray holds. The state does not mandate the specific amount of days, that is decided upon by the local governments. Stray hold is for the purpose of giving the owner time to reclaim his/her animal before the animal is adopted, rescued, or euthanized. The only people that can perform a LEGAL stray hold is an Animal control officer and/or animal shelter, NOT animal rescues unless they are AUTHORIZED by an animal shelter. We are not trying to step on toes or offend anyone. We are simply trying to educate and to clear up wrong information that has been given out and that's been floating around that we see. We strongly suggest and reccomend that EVERYONE visit the Georgia Department of Agriculture website and read the Animal Protection Act and Animal Protection Rules. By doing so it could prevent some legal issues from arising in the future. We hope this helps and y'all find some good information in this research that answers many questions for you. See more

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Found this sweet, gorgeous kitty on a walk in Lakeland, GA in the Millpond subdivision. Super sweet and kept following us. Very lost. It broke my heart. My par...ents wouldnt let me take the kitty back to their home to hold onto until Monday to take him/her to the vet or shelter to see if anyone reported him/her missing (I’m visiting from Chicago.) Please share See more

puppies and kittens are NOT gifts

hopefully everyone got enough Tootise rolls We had a party at our tent today. Halloween at the court house was lit, y’all! thank you for all the wonderful participation from the community. Everyone was so awesome!

Happy Halloween from us here at AAC stay safe and enjoy all that candy!

Please have some type of ID tag with WORKING contact info on your pets! The Fourth of July is the busiest time of year for missing pets and animal control. If your pet(s) have proper ID they can easily be returned to you!

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UPDATE: Puppy has passed over the rainbow bridge. We got to him too late. we kept him comfortable in the short time he was in our care. He never once picked his head up or wagged his tail. But we held him and loved him. Moral of the story: Do not own animals if you do not intend on keeping them. We recently were dispatched to a call out by burnt church towards the river access. The call was dumped dog. We have calls like this all the time. So we go out expectin...g to see a dog running around the church area... when we arrived we were shocked at the horrid site. We did not get pictures of the bed the puppy was in because we were sure he was already dead when we discovered the plastic tote he was in! This puppy we picked up is around five months old. He is skin and bones. He is a large breed pup, but he weighs maybe 15lbs. He is so beyond weak he cannot walk, move or pick his head up to drink water. His bed was a plastic tote that you would storage this in, with a small slit cut in the side, stuff with styrofoam and a blanket... so whoever dropped him must’ve thought they were doing him a bit of good let us inform you personally YOU WERE NOT HELPINGThis puppy was too weak to get out of the tote to avoid suffocating. We are having to pretty much pour water into his mouth and hold his head back so he can swallow. This is a site that will haunt us for many nights. The pup will not even attempt to eat, we have offered soft dog food, soft Cat food and even tried chicken nuggets. No luck!!! We will honestly be surprised if this young boy makes it through the night. If he does pass over the night, he is at least comfortable and will not suffocate to death in a plastic tote in the summer sun. We pride our self on providing animals with excellent care that come into our care and being the best place for animals without homes. Scenes like this haunt us. We know the owner does not care, but we do. We want this guy to make it. We want him to live and prosper so the old owner may stumble across this and see him thriving and feel guilt. But, we have faced many situations like this and we know it won’t happen. But we hope it does. We hope you at least sit up all night and wonder how he is. He is safe now. But leaving him out there even another hour or two, he may not have been. Sleep with that on your mind. #RantOver #DontDump #ItsIllegal #DoBetterHumans #WeDontDeserveDogs See more