Bulloch County animal shelter to hold grand reopening after renovations

STATESBORO, Ga. (WSAV) – The Bulloch County animal shelter is holding its grand reopening on Saturday to show off new renovations.

The shelter is reopening its play yards, an essential part of the adoption process.

Shelter supervisor Amanda Anderson tells News 3 that time spent outside training makes for more adoptable animals.

“Before, it was very awful to go to,” said Anderson. “We had roots you were tripping over and it wasn’t very friendly to people.”

The ground has been evened out and partly filled with cooling concrete and training equipment.

Anderson says the shelter is always looking for more volunteers to get out and train the animals.”

Us taking care and socializing the animals is only part of it,” said Anderson. “Having those new people come in… they get so excited that, ‘Ooh someone is coming to take me out. I’m special. I get to go play.'”

Adoption rooms have been fully updated, now with murals in each.

Another new feature at the shelter, Anderson says you can register your pet for free in their system, making it faster to find your dog if they’re lost and keeping farm dogs who aren’t on a leash from being labeled “stray.”

“We can pull it up in our system and instead of them bringing it all the way here to a shelter and then we call you, we can cut out that middle person where you say, ‘Oh that’s my property, let my dog be,’” said Anderson.

The county was able to avoid much of the renovation’s cost using inmate labor.

Anderson says they were able to maintain the same level of service while renovations happened. Even still, their shelter stays nearly full year-round.

They’re celebrating the grand reopening at the shelter on Saturday from 11 to 4 p.m. with fun for the whole family (81 Mill Creek Road).