McDuffie County looks to move past issues at animal shelter
THOMSON, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The investigation into abuse claims at the McDuffie County Animal Shelter is now in the hands of the district attorney.
It’s been eight months since the shelter closed its doors to the public. The state did find discrepancies in the electronic record-keeping of animals coming in and out of the shelter. But they did not find evidence of abuse.
With this ongoing investigation, the new animal services director, Wendy Ivey, wants to move the shelter in a different direction.
We sat down with her to learn how they are looking to get past these challenges.
“I feel I have that experience that already knows how we can kind of grow how we can come together as a community,” she said.
Ivey comes from being the animal services director in Bulloch County. She felt called to take this job.
“God did. I didn’t choose that. He chose that for me. I just obeyed and followed,” she said.
In Bulloch County, she built the animal services division from a team of one to more than 10. Building from the ground up is something she will have to do again.
She takes over after claims of neglect, abuse, mistreatment, and extreme animal cruelty shut the shelter down and investigated by the GBI, and has since been turned over to the district attorney.
“I guess naturally, it adds a little bit of pressure, but I’m not intimidated by it. I know who leads me so I’m confident, you know, in my experience, and I’m confident that I’ll be equipped to do exactly what I was brought here to do,” said Ivey.
She’s been looking to make changes to city and county ordinances and modernize the way McDuffie County will handle animal services. Other goals are wanting to build a new facility, add a humane enforcement division, and have programs to educate and get the community involved.
She says they’re taking small steps to rebuild.
“We’re not slowing down. We’re gonna move forward. It’s just gonna take some time, and you know, reorganization of some things but we’re gonna get there,” said Ivey.
The county has given us timelines in the past when they would’ve liked to reopen everything but decided not to do Friday. They say they want this done the right way and not have anything rushed.
We reached out to the Toombs district attorney about the status of this case. He says the file hit his office Friday and has no further information at this time.
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