DeKalb County animal shelter employee injured
An employee at the DeKalb County Animal Shelter is recovering after a dog inside the shelter attacked her.
A spokesperson for Lifeline Animal Project, which is the company that manages the shelter, calls this an unfortunate, but rare incident.
The animals are sometimes brought to the front offices of the shelter because there is not enough room in the shelter for all the animals.
The DeKalb County Animal Shelter is at nearly triple its capacity. As a treat for employees, and to alleviate some of the facilities overcrowding, employees are allowed to keep dogs in their office. But over the weekend, a pit bull mix got aggressive one of the employee, something spokesperson Karen Hersh said is rare and unusual.
“One of the employees walked by and fell and the dog which has never displayed signs of aggression got out of the crate and leash I believe and started attacking her arm,” said Hersh.
It took a couple of employees to get the dog to stop biting the woman's arm and she was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital.
Spokesperson Hersh said the worker has full use of her arm and feels bad for the dog that was put down.
She said since the Fourth of July they have seen a 20 percent increase in animals at the shelter.
“[The] Fourth in July in particular they set off louder fireworks and saw more animals come into both of our shelters, Fulton County and DeKalb County Animal Services as a result. That in combination with the spring pregnant dogs having babies,” said Hersh.
They have about 430 animals; they are only supposed to have 150.
“Right now we are doing the best we can and we need the public to step in and help us by adopting animals,” said Hersh.
The shelter spokesperson said if they will reconsider whether or not to allow dogs in the office despite the attack. She said the policy will remain the same and adds that the director of the animal shelter checks to make sure the dog are considered to live in the offices have no history or displays of aggression.