Volunteers work to help homeless, displaced pets after Griffin tornadoes
Animal shelter housing homeless dogs after tornado
Things are slowly getting back to normal in Spalding County after powerful tornadoes tore through the area on January 12th. One of those things is housing homeless and displaces animals. It came about thanks to a lot of outside help and a little help from the community.
GRIFFIN, Ga. - Hominy and Grits are examples of the many dogs found homeless after the January 12th tornado that hit the Griffin area.
Spalding County and Control is currently housing about 30 dogs at its old shelter. Some are now considered strays while there are others that county is boarding because their homes were destroyed and the owners are in temporary housing or because repairs are being made.
"The community was very grateful. As soon as we got the word out that we were here, we deployed our AKC Griffin Kennel Club trailer and immediately started letting people know that there was a place for them. That if their homes were destroyed, that they had a place where they could bring their animals that was safe, it was warm and it was dry. We had the food and the means to care for them," said supervisor Tyler White.
Spalding County has gotten big help from two groups, American Humane and the ASPCA. Both of those national groups are on the ground and helping shelter workers care for the animals.
"In a matter of 24 hours, we had somebody fly in and access the situation, and then within 48 hours, they had a full team of 15 people step in and started assessing the situation and helping us run the shelter of displaced pets and the stray animals in the disaster area," said White.
Fortunately, Spalding County has recently opened a new larger animal shelter, it was already full, so dogs from the storm are being housed at the old shelter.
Also, there has been a tremendous public outpouring of support as well with donations. They are still in need of more volunteers to help walk the dogs.
In a couple of weeks, any of the dogs that go unclaimed, or for whatever reason cannot be reunited with their families, they will come up here to Spalding County’s new animal control shelter. They will be put up for adoption, and it’s important to know that this is a no-kill shelter. So these dogs stand a really good chance of finding a good family after all they have been through in the storm.
For more information visit the Spalding County Animal Shelter’s Facebook Page.