Mobile County Dogs Get New Digs

Posted on: Mar 23rd, 2009 | Announcements

About 100 animals will be moving to new and finer accommodations when the Mobile County Commission opens its new animal shelter at a ribbon cutting at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 24 at 7665 Howells Ferry Road. A dozen of the shelter?s adoptable pets will be dressed in finery to join county commissioners and other animal rescue agency leaders at the ribbon cutting ceremony. Tours will be offered to the public following the ceremony. The new $2 million residence allows the county to move its operations out of the shelter that it has leased in the city of Prichard. The new shelter is a much larger facility at 10,500 square feet and will increase holding space from about 100 animals now to 300. ?Animal control is an important function for the health and safety of residents,? said Commission president Mike Dean. ?This gives us opportunity to serve more residents and to provide a higher level of service.? By law, the county is required to operate an animal shelter. The size of the Prichard facility has been inadequate to meet the needs of a growing county, which last year answered more than 10,000 calls for service. Intake of animals in 2008 exceeded 6,700 and jumped by almost 2,000 animals just in the last two years. The county has struggled to accommodate the thousands of stray animals reported by the public. In the last fiscal year, there were 1,200 calls to pick up aggressive stray dogs, and another 2,300 calls for random strays. The county got called to investigate 468 animal cruelty complaints and 182 dog-fighting reports. There were 142 calls for dog bites. Pet adoption is an important facet of the work of the shelter and officials hope the more accessible location on a major commercial thoroughfare will make it easier for people to visit and adopt unwanted animals. Last year, there were 481 adoptions, up sharply from 110 the year before. A new Web site for the county animal shelter is available at www.mobilecountyanimals.com. The site provides information, a link to shelter officers for submission of complaints, as well as photos of adoptable pets.