Promotion sees McDuffie County Animal Services Facility Manager step into directorship

McDUFFIE COUNTY, Ga. (WJBF) – A spokesperson for McDuffie County confirms that Catherine Bohler, who joined the staff of the County Animal Shelter in December 2023 as Animal Services Facility Manager, has been promoted to Animal Shelter Director.

The McDuffie County Animal Shelter Director is responsible for the overall day-to-day operations of the McDuffie County Animal Shelter and the welfare of the animals there. The Director reports to the County Manager and supervises the staff at the shelter.

The county’s directive of the Animal Shelter Director is to build a network of community contacts to improve adoption and decrease the rate of euthanasia on found animals, as well as increasing volunteerism and establishing a positive and care-centered mission public image for the county’s Animal Shelter Department.

Bohler, as Facility Manager, oversaw the full reopening of the shelter and several mobile adoption events held during the Spring throughout the County. The department’s social media page regularly features lost-and-found animals and provides updates for those whose owners have been located.

Bohler’s original position with the county as Animal Services Facility Manager was a new one to the county, one that the former Animal Shelter Director Micayla McClain had requested be made in order to help her with the operation of the shelter. When McClain, the shelter’s former director, was placed on administrative leave in November 2023 after being charged with 1 ^st Degree Cruelty to Children in an incident separate from her duties as shelter director after a toddler in McClain’s care was admitted to an area hospital after exposure to THC, the county moved forward with creating the Facility Manager position and hiring for the position.

McClain’s arrest came just a little more than a month after it reopened in early October 2023 after a long-term closure that lasted more than a year and the resignation of most of the previous staff following multiple investigations by both local and state agencies into alleged animal abuse at the shelter , none of which resulted in criminal charges .

The animal shelter, with Bohler as Facility Manager, fully reopened at the end of March 2024 and celebrated with free pet adoptions and microchipping for the community. When WJBF last spoke to Bohler during the grand re-opening, she was recounting the emotional adoption that day of a dog that had been with the shelter for months, even before her hiring. As many as 10 adoptions took place the first day of full operations for the shelter, which had previously only been open for pre-scheduled adoptions. All other services had been halted while the shelter and leadership staff found their footing.

In May 2024, the county announced that the shelter could be expanding with the help of University of Georgia engineering students . Being a rural county, there is no shortage of stray animals being turned in and the shelter has been operating at full capacity since reopening, according to Jason Smith, the Community Development Director for McDuffie County.

UGA’s Archway Partnership helps rural communities with projects that would require substantial financial assistance to complete – the request of McDuffie County was that students at UGA help design an expansion for the shelter. The new shelter would be built on property adjacent to the current building and would have more than double the space.

The shelter can currently hold approximately 40 animals at full capacity.

If the county moves forward with the plan, the current shelter would still be used as an intake building.

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