Piedmont Police Issues Statement on Social Media Regarding Animal Control

From the Piedmont Police Department:

Recently there has been some concerns mentioned about Animal Control and the city budget for Animal Control. There was a response that was made by Chief Johnson that clarifies the concern that some may have. “When the city lost the resource for the Calhoun County Animal Shelter because of issues not involving the city it crippled the ability for the Animal Control Officer to pick up and place stray animals at the shelter. We have continuously checked shelters as far north as Lawrence County and as far south as Jefferson County and every shelter between to find a place to accept our animals with no success of another resource. Our Animal Control Officer was cross trained into dispatch and filled a void in employment. He has since then been available for emergency calls and advisement’s for ACO related issues while filling a full time vacancy of a communications officer during this time of not having a resource. This direction was publicly discussed but obviously people have forgotten and now claim mismanagement, but it is as simple as cross training someone instead of paying for someone not to be able to provide an adequate service or terminating an employee that accepted additional responsibilities without additional compensation. There is still a vacant Communications Officer position that has not been filled and will not be filled until a resource is available to allow our Animal Control to operate effectively. This was a highly talked about subject when we were turned away from the County Shelter. There are only a few circumstances where the shelter will take an animal from our municipality which is extreme circumstances or criminal related.”