The Athens County Dog Shelter will install a new security system to identify anyone stealing dogs from the shelter's outdoor pens.
The Athens County Commissioners allocated $3,150 during yesterday's meeting for a new system, which can record a week's worth of video footage, capture license plates and note when the cages are opened and closed. The system will allow the shelter to prosecute people who steal dogs from the outdoor pens, where people can drop off stray dogs after hours, said Assistant Dog Warden Chris Morris.
The old security system did not have the high-quality cameras needed to record license plates and would record over itself after 24 hours, Morris said. Six dogs have been stolen from the outdoor pens in the last six weeks that the shelter workers know about.
I can't wait to get (the new system) in so we can catch people for doing it
Morris said.
The stolen dogs decrease the dog shelter's revenue, said Joann Sikorski, county commissioner clerk. Taking dogs from the drop-off pens also harms owners whose dogs temporarily ran away, Morris said. Although a well-meaning person might take a dog to the shelter, the shelter doesn't have a dog to give back to the owner.
It was also announced that Athens County Department of Job and Family Services will call back two laid off employees thanks to almost $900,000 in stimulus funds.
The summer youth program received about $600,000 and the adult dislocated work program received about $270,000 from the federal government's stimulus program. This enabled the Job and Family Services department to bring back one laid off social worker and to rescind the layoff of another, said Jack Frech, the department director.
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Rebecca Black
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(FILE PHOTO)
A dog at the Athens County Dog Shelter is quarantined because of whooping cough. Within the last six weeks, six dogs have been stolen from outdoor pens at the shelter. A new security system funded by the county will be installed to help decrease the number of dogs stolen from the drop-off pens.
