Our Shelter Is Failing Colquitt County — Overhaul the Humane Society Now
The Issue
To the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners:
We, the undersigned residents of Colquitt County, petition this Board to overhaul the Humane Society of Moultrie and Colquitt County, Inc. — the contractor this County pays with public money to run our shelter and animal control. The failures are no longer isolated incidents. They are a pattern, and the public is living with it:
1. A LOST DOG, A STONE WALL. In September 2026, a registered emotional support dog — a Catahoula mother named Oreo, owned by Ashley Miller — and her puppies came into the shelter's custody. The owner tried to claim them and could not. Her authorized representative asked for the intake and transfer records under the Georgia Open Records Act and got a $522.50 prepayment demand, an in-person appearance requirement found nowhere in the law, an answer that the shelter could find no dog under that name, and then silence in the face of written requests due October 23, 2026. A month later, this family still does not know where their dog is.
2. DANGEROUS DOGS, NO RESPONSE — BEAR CREEK. Loose pit bulls have been running in the Bear Creek area. A child was attacked and hospitalized. A police report was filed and animal control was notified — and residents are still reporting loose dogs in the area at night. Animal control in this county IS the Humane Society. The same contractor that cannot produce one dog's records cannot seem to answer for the dogs endangering our children either.
3. LOOSE DOGS AT INDIAN LAKE TRAIL PARK. Pit bulls loose around Indian Lake Trail Park have been reported by residents — the same story in another part of the county: dogs running at large, families afraid in their own neighborhood, and no visible animal-control response.
4. STRAYS EVERYWHERE. Stray dogs run loose across Colquitt County while the contractor the public pays stays invisible and unaccountable. Residents cannot get answers, cannot get records, and cannot get help.
5. A CLOSED CIRCLE INSTEAD OF ACCOUNTABILITY. The County Attorney says this Board has "no control" over the contractor — while the State of Georgia's own corporate filing lists a sitting member of this Board, Commissioner Paul Nagy, as the Society's CEO, and the County Clerk, Melissa Lawson, as its Secretary. The County funds it, the County's own people run it, and the County claims it can do nothing about it. That is not oversight. That is a closed loop.
6. A BUILDING LET GO. Photographs taken the shelter in October 2026 show dogs housed on bare, stained concrete, paint peeling from the walls, feeding pans rusted, and no bedding in the runs. The concrete floors were supposed to be sealed with city and county money back in 2022 — the shelter's own former director said on the record that the money was never spent on the floors, and four years later the floors still sit unsealed. The animals of this county deserve a clean, safe, sanitary facility, and the public deserves to know where its money went.
WE THEREFORE PETITION THE BOARD TO:
1. Commission an independent review and audit of the Humane Society's operations, intake and outcome records, finances, and contract compliance — with the results made public.
2. Hold a public hearing on the state of animal control in Colquitt County, where residents can testify on the record about lost animals, unanswered records requests, and loose and dangerous dogs.
3. Enforce the contract — or replace the contractor. Require written standards for intake, stray holds, owner reclamation, dangerous-dog response, and open-records compliance as conditions of public funding.
4. Answer for the dual roles in public session: a Commissioner as the contractor's CEO, and the County Clerk as its Secretary.
5. Produce the Oreo records — the intake and transfer records for September 15–21, 2026 — so a county family can finally learn where their dog went.
6. Fix the facility. Clean up the shelter and bring it up to standard — whether that means a whole new building or a full revamp of the one standing: more kennels so animals are not crowded together, kennels cleaned and maintained daily, walls repaired and painted, and the concrete floors finally sealed, as the public already paid to have done in 2022.
7. Overhaul the staff. Put a brand-new staff in place throughout the facility, top to bottom — people who will answer to the public, follow the law, and treat the animals and the families of this county with the care this job demands.
Colquitt County pays for this shelter. Colquitt County deserves a shelter that answers to it.
A lost service dog whose records the shelter won't release. A child attacked by loose pit bulls in Bear Creek. More loose dogs at Indian Lake Trail Park. Strays running all over the county — and an animal-control contractor, paid with our tax dollars, that answers to no one, while a County Commissioner sits as its CEO. Sign to tell the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners: audit it, open it up, and overhaul the Humane Society now.
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The Issue
To the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners:
We, the undersigned residents of Colquitt County, petition this Board to overhaul the Humane Society of Moultrie and Colquitt County, Inc. — the contractor this County pays with public money to run our shelter and animal control. The failures are no longer isolated incidents. They are a pattern, and the public is living with it:
1. A LOST DOG, A STONE WALL. In September 2026, a registered emotional support dog — a Catahoula mother named Oreo, owned by Ashley Miller — and her puppies came into the shelter's custody. The owner tried to claim them and could not. Her authorized representative asked for the intake and transfer records under the Georgia Open Records Act and got a $522.50 prepayment demand, an in-person appearance requirement found nowhere in the law, an answer that the shelter could find no dog under that name, and then silence in the face of written requests due October 23, 2026. A month later, this family still does not know where their dog is.
2. DANGEROUS DOGS, NO RESPONSE — BEAR CREEK. Loose pit bulls have been running in the Bear Creek area. A child was attacked and hospitalized. A police report was filed and animal control was notified — and residents are still reporting loose dogs in the area at night. Animal control in this county IS the Humane Society. The same contractor that cannot produce one dog's records cannot seem to answer for the dogs endangering our children either.
3. LOOSE DOGS AT INDIAN LAKE TRAIL PARK. Pit bulls loose around Indian Lake Trail Park have been reported by residents — the same story in another part of the county: dogs running at large, families afraid in their own neighborhood, and no visible animal-control response.
4. STRAYS EVERYWHERE. Stray dogs run loose across Colquitt County while the contractor the public pays stays invisible and unaccountable. Residents cannot get answers, cannot get records, and cannot get help.
5. A CLOSED CIRCLE INSTEAD OF ACCOUNTABILITY. The County Attorney says this Board has "no control" over the contractor — while the State of Georgia's own corporate filing lists a sitting member of this Board, Commissioner Paul Nagy, as the Society's CEO, and the County Clerk, Melissa Lawson, as its Secretary. The County funds it, the County's own people run it, and the County claims it can do nothing about it. That is not oversight. That is a closed loop.
6. A BUILDING LET GO. Photographs taken the shelter in October 2026 show dogs housed on bare, stained concrete, paint peeling from the walls, feeding pans rusted, and no bedding in the runs. The concrete floors were supposed to be sealed with city and county money back in 2022 — the shelter's own former director said on the record that the money was never spent on the floors, and four years later the floors still sit unsealed. The animals of this county deserve a clean, safe, sanitary facility, and the public deserves to know where its money went.
WE THEREFORE PETITION THE BOARD TO:
1. Commission an independent review and audit of the Humane Society's operations, intake and outcome records, finances, and contract compliance — with the results made public.
2. Hold a public hearing on the state of animal control in Colquitt County, where residents can testify on the record about lost animals, unanswered records requests, and loose and dangerous dogs.
3. Enforce the contract — or replace the contractor. Require written standards for intake, stray holds, owner reclamation, dangerous-dog response, and open-records compliance as conditions of public funding.
4. Answer for the dual roles in public session: a Commissioner as the contractor's CEO, and the County Clerk as its Secretary.
5. Produce the Oreo records — the intake and transfer records for September 15–21, 2026 — so a county family can finally learn where their dog went.
6. Fix the facility. Clean up the shelter and bring it up to standard — whether that means a whole new building or a full revamp of the one standing: more kennels so animals are not crowded together, kennels cleaned and maintained daily, walls repaired and painted, and the concrete floors finally sealed, as the public already paid to have done in 2022.
7. Overhaul the staff. Put a brand-new staff in place throughout the facility, top to bottom — people who will answer to the public, follow the law, and treat the animals and the families of this county with the care this job demands.
Colquitt County pays for this shelter. Colquitt County deserves a shelter that answers to it.
A lost service dog whose records the shelter won't release. A child attacked by loose pit bulls in Bear Creek. More loose dogs at Indian Lake Trail Park. Strays running all over the county — and an animal-control contractor, paid with our tax dollars, that answers to no one, while a County Commissioner sits as its CEO. Sign to tell the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners: audit it, open it up, and overhaul the Humane Society now.
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Petition created on October 23, 2026