Macon Animal Control missing money, records

It’s a time of turmoil for Macon’s Animal Control Department. Already involved in an investigation for the handling of a dog trapped in a storm drain earlier this year, an internal city audit discovered that more than $18,000 is unaccounted for in the past 10 months. Director Jim Johnson is out on leave while investigations are under way.

And then, one year from now, the department is due to be turned over to Bibb County control -- if voters approve a special purpose local option sales tax this November.

A report from city Internal Auditor Stephanie Jones, dated June 10, concluded that the shelter had seriously inadequate controls for handling and tracking money, creating a situation ripe for fraud.

Between July 1, 2010, and April 30, 2011, the shelter took in $76,761, the audit report said. The vast bulk of revenue -- $68,076 -- came from Bibb County for taking in 1,116 of its animals. Most of the rest comes from pet adoptions, which cost $75 for a dog or cat. There is no policy that allows that fee to be waived, Jones wrote.

The shelter is required to keep records on each animal from arrival to departure, including whatever fees are charged. Monthly reports show discrepancies between revenue reported and animal traffic, but those were not noted by management, she reported.

“The lack of management oversight of revenue collected and revenue reported by the ACC (Animal Control Center) has cultivated an environment of inadequate controls with no accountability by the ACC,” Jones wrote.

From the available records, she concluded that at least $18,408 is unaccounted for.

Clay Murphey, spokesman for Mayor Robert Reichert, said it’s still unclear whether the missing money was taken, or if people were just not charged for adoptions.

Johnson was reassigned May 16 during an investigation of department procedures, and soon afterward said he was going on medical leave. Friday, Police Chief Mike Burns said Johnson is on administrative leave, as is office assistant Paula Fuller. Nearly a month ago, police Sgt. Robert Carr was named interim department head.

“We have an ongoing investigation in the missing revenue at Animal Control,” Burns said. “The audit suggested several changes for Animal Control, and we started working on each as soon as I received the audit report.”

Jones’ audit includes an 18-item action plan to tighten controls, with all items to be in effect by June 30.

Whoever manages the department, and whatever changes are made in its procedures, animal control is still an expensive proposition. The department is slated to get almost $600,000 in the city budget that’s up for approval Tuesday. With long-term cost-cutting as one of its goals, one recent proposal is getting some notice from city officials.

Edwina Barnes, chairwoman of Humane Services of Middle Georgia, e-mailed several people June 2 to urge adoption of a mandatory spay/neuter ordinance. Pet owners should have to have a breeder’s license if they want to keep fertile animals, she said.

“You license other hobbies, and they are not creating living beings that we kill as a form of control. This is also a cost to taxpayers,” Barnes wrote.

Macon City Councilwoman Nancy White replied June 3, saying she would sponsor the ordinance “when the community is ready.”

Such an ordinance should have exceptions for breeders and those who foster animals, and nonprofit agencies would have to be ready to provide free or very cheap spay/neuter service, White said.

“This is not only the humane thing to do. It is also a significant expense reduction for the local governments,” White said.

There always will need to be an animal shelter to deal with animal cruelty and cases of illness, but it’s not fair to ask taxpayers to subsidize irresponsible pet ownership, White said.

To be successful, however, a mandatory spay/neuter service would have to be free or charge on an income-based sliding scale, White said. Many nonprofit foundations are “more than willing to do this,” she said.

“There’s going to be a big start-up cost to this,” White said.

Reichert doesn’t support a mandatory spay/neuter ordinance because he doesn’t know how it could be enforced, Murphey said. If City Council passes it, however, Reichert would help promote it.

There’s no money in the proposed city budget for any such service, and it would be up to the council to find the necessary funds, Murphey said for Reichert.

The likely cost is unknown but should drop as the program’s effects are felt, White said.

Many other communities, including Savannah, have had great success with mandatory spay/neuter programs, to the point that they actually import animals from other communities for adoption because their own shelters are nearly empty, she said.

According to the audit, Macon’s animal shelter took in 3,404 animals from July 2010 through April 2011. In that time, 3,342 left the shelter. They were either adopted, reclaimed by owners or euthanized.

Then, when schools let out this spring there was a surge, and it has continued. On one day, before 11:30 a.m., owners brought in 40 animals, according to Patti Jones, chairwoman of Central Georgia CARES.

“What we have witnessed in the past couple of years that we’ve worked with the shelter and particularly this year is very disturbing,” she said. “And that’s the enormous number of animals that are paraded into the shelter and surrendered by their owners. We don’t understand why.”

Central Georgia CARES is a nonprofit that started in 2009 to promote increased adoptions from the animal shelter, with the goal of ending euthanasia except for sick and injured animals, Jones said. To complement that, Central Georgia CARES promotes spaying and neutering, and has sponsored four “spay days” at Macon-Bibb County Fire Station 108 on Zebulon Road. Those events spayed or neutered 234 animals altogether, charging $25 for cats and a maximum of $85 for large dogs.

“Even at the highest end of that spectrum, it’s still incredibly lower than you would pay at a private vet,” Jones said.

But a few low-cost events a year don’t put much of a dent in shelter intake -- and, thus, not in taxpayers’ cost to house and euthanize animals, she said.