MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Montgomery County officials are working to do something about its dog crisis.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, the county has been working closely with the Animal Welfare Task Force for the last year.
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Montgomery County Administrator Michael Colbert said they’ve met with the task force monthly and have taken some of their recommendations, but now it’s time to implement what they’ve learned.
“We’ve got 144,000 strays across Montgomery County. We’ve got more dogs than deer,” Colbert said.
It’s why Colbert said the county is partnering with Best Friends Animal Society, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters.
Along with four other local agencies, working to increase the number of dogs adopted or rescued through the shelter.
It’s a pilot program they are testing for 90 days.
“We spent a year discussing these changes and having it fall on deaf ears,” Robyn McGeorge said.
The new partnership came as a surprise to the co-chairs of the task force. They said they’ve been working closely with the county to tackle the problems they see in the shelters.
“ARC’s own, publicly available data and operational records, when reviewed, raise serious questions about whether the legal responsibilities of the county dog warden are being fully carried out,” Kristen Tilton said.
Colbert said ARC is overcrowded, but they are doing a great job with limited resources.
McGeorge and Tilton think the dogs there aren’t cared for properly.
“The dogs in ARC are treated in ways that by law would be considered neglect,” McGeorge said. “Many become sad and withdrawn, others become very aggressive. They’re given high doses of behavior modification drugs to keep them calm, and this continues until they’re labeled unadoptable and eventually euthanized.”
Tilton put together a petition and gathered 1,000 signatures from people asking the county to look into how ARC functions.
“On behalf of nearly 1,000 individuals who have signed the petition, we are urging you to immediately open bids for a third-party audit into Animal Control,” Tilton said.
The county didn’t say if a third-party audit will happen, but they have high hopes that the new pilot partnership will work.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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