Community answers call to adopt shelter animals

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Hundreds of dogs found homes when people turned out in droves at DeKalb County Animal Services a week after the shelter announced the animals faced euthanizing if space could not be freed up by Jan. 31.

LifeLine Animal Project, the organization that manages DeKalb County Animal Services and Fulton County Animal Services said it needed to remove 150 dogs from the shelter by the end of January. On Jan. 31, the nonprofit said 345 canines had found new or temporary homes. At the Fulton County shelter, 89 dogs found new homes.

LifeLine runs no-kill shelters, but the cramped situation prompted drastic action.

“We’re no-kill shelters, we euthanize less than 10 percent of the animals,” said Timyka Artist, LifeLine Animal Project public relations manager. “This is the first time we’ve had to euthanize for space.”

The DeKalb County shelter, located on Chamblee Dunwoody Road in Chamblee, can hold about 450 dogs. Over the past year, it has housed around 600.

In Fulton County, the situation is worse. The shelter on Marietta Boulevard in Atlanta can hold 85 dogs but has more than 300 in its care. The hallways are lined with crates for the overflow.

“We’ve been at critical capacity for over a year,” Artist said.

Antisemitic flyers ignite local effort to find offenders

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmeda.com

DUNWOODY, Ga. — State and Perimeter area leaders took to social media Feb. 5 to denounce an antisemitic flyer distributed in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs over the weekend.

Officials said the flyer, which contained multiple antisemitic messages and slogans, was found on driveways in several Dunwoody and Sandy Springs neighborhoods Sunday morning.

In a message to residents, Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch said her city is a diverse community of different faiths, races and ethnicities, which doesn’t tolerate hate speech.

PHOTOS BY DELANEY TARR/APPEN MEDIA

Above: A crowd fills the halls of DeKalb County Animal Services to adopt and foster dogs Jan. 27 after facility officials announced they would have to euthanize some dogs if the facility could not trim the population by 150 by Jan. 31.

At left: A dog reacts to visitors passing through the halls of DeKalb County Animal Services Jan. 27. See SHELTER, Page 4