Charles Oliver/Daily Citizen-NewsWhitfield County Animal Shelter Director Diane Franklin discusses changes that have helped reduce the number of animals euthanized at the shelter. 

DALTON, Ga. — The numbers tell the story. For the first eight months of 2017, the Whitfield County Animal Shelter euthanized an average of 15.4 dogs a month and never put down fewer than 10.

In August, Don Allen Garrett retired after 25 years as director. The county Board of Commissioners named Diane Franklin, former director of animal control in Murray County, as interim director.

The very next month, the shelter euthanized just one dog, and since Franklin stepped into the role it has never put down more than six dogs in a month.

In December, citing the plummeting kill rate, commissioners named Franklin the sole finalist for the position of director, and in January they officially appointed her director.

How has Franklin gotten the kill rate at the shelter down?

“We made the shelter more open to the public and more open to our rescue groups,” she said.

Shelter video

When Franklin took over as interim director, she reversed some of the controversial policies implemented by Garrett in his final months, allowing the public and rescue groups to go back into the kennel area and removing a covering that had been placed on the shelter’s fence.

“We also implemented a vaccination program. The dogs and cats that come in, if we are able, are given their first distemper-parvo vaccine,” she said.

Both distemper and the parvovirus are potentially deadly. Franklin said providing the vaccine helps the animals in the shelter and also makes them more attractive to rescue groups.

“If you get even one animal with (distemper or parvovirus) and take it back to your other rescue animals, it can cause an outbreak,” she said. “I’d advise any pet owner to get that distemper-parvo vaccine.”

Devon Brooks, executive director of the Humane Society of Northwest Georgia, praises the changes Franklin has made at the shelter.

“We have a very good relationship with her. I believe the other rescue groups have as well,” Brooks said. “She has been willing to go the extra mile to work with us. The atmosphere at the shelter has been very welcoming.”

In November 2017, the shelter euthanized no animals. Franklin said she was very pleased with that and her goal is to get to “zero kills” permanently.

“I don’t want to use euthanasia,” she said. “But when we have owners who surrender animals to us because they don’t want them any more or, worse, they just turn them loose, there is only so much the shelter can do. I’d love to have a positive outcome for every dog or cat that comes in here. But it’s going to take owners stepping up and taking responsibility.”

Earlier this year, Franklin convinced commissioners to increase the fee to reclaim an animal that has been picked up by animal control from the animal shelter to $150 from $25. But the law automatically reduces that fee to $25 if the animal has been previously spayed or neutered. And If the animal has not been spayed or neutered, the law says the fee will be waived entirely if the owner requests that animal control carry the animal to a licensed spay/neuter clinic of the owner’s choice and the clinic confirms it has spayed or neutered the animal at the owner’s expense.

Franklin said she hopes the law persuades more owners to have cats and dogs sterilized in order to keep the county’s population of unwanted pets down.

Low-cost rabies clinic

The Whitfield County Animal Shelter will host a low-cost rabies clinic on Saturday, May 5, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Rabies shots will be $10. Pet owners can also get the distemper-parvo vaccination for $10. The shelter is at 156 Gillespie Drive in Dalton.