THE ANIMALS OF JESUP AND WAYNE COUNTY NEED YOU TO SIGN THIS PETITION TO GIVE LAST CHANCE AND WAGS RESCUE THE 10 DAYS AFTER THE 5 DAY HOLDING PERIOD IS UP TO FIND A RESCUE AND TRANSPORTATION SO THAT THEY ARE NOT EUTHANIZED. THE NEW CITY MANAGER, ROSE MARCUS, HAS ORDERED ALL ANIMALS TO BE EUTHANIZED AT 345 PM OF THE 5TH DAY, IF THEY ARE STILL AT THE POUND !!!!EVEN IF THE POUND HAS SPACE!!!!! OUR VOLUNTEERS IN THE LAST 6 MONTHS HAVE SAVED OVER 99.5% OF THE ANIMALS THAT HAVE COME THROUGH THE POUND AND THAT MEANT WITHOUT US AS THE ANIMAL ADVOCATES THAT 99.5% WOULD BE KILLED!! PLEASE READ FOR MORE INFORMATION AND SIGN OUR PETITION!! IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS WE HAVE SAVED OVER 300 ANIMALS!!

In Jesup, GA, it seems like a fairy book town. You have your old fashioned drive in where your car hops wear poodle skirts and 1950 style outfits but unfortunately the elected and appointed city officials' attitudes are straight out of the 1950's too since they have now ordered the senseless slaughter of all stray and owner surrendered animals after a 3 DAY hold. This will lead to the senseless mass killing of thousands of animals per year. 

The Last Chance Program was created in 2013 by Kathy Jones and Juana Grover to help aid the animals of Jesup and Wayne County to be able to allow volunteers to come into Animal Control in an effort to take pictures, videos and to find 501c3 rescues since the city of Jesup did not allow public adoptions and at this time it was either reclaim your animal or then be euthanized (which is what they are back to doing now).

Between 2013 and 2015, according to a newspaper article that we found, over 2,800 animals were euthanized at the Jesup/Wayne County Animal Control with it decreasing each year as Last Chance volunteers worked to get their footing and find rescues to pull the animals. In a town and county where some people people think animals are property for a means to an end, people just didn't care. In stepped the Animal Refuge Foundation to head the charge into saving these animals lives and becoming the voice for the voiceless. Euthanizations and the senseless slaughter of animals decreased. Dogs and cats were being sent to licensed rescues and receiving the medical attention they needed, being spayed and neutered, and being adopted to families that considered them a member of their family not a thing to be disposed of. 

In 2020, Wags Rescue headed by Kathy Jones took over leading Last Chance and her team of Simone Gieck, Lori Durham, and Donna Eskenazi (replaced thereafter by Heather Mansfield) stepped in to post animals on the Facebook page Last Chance Rescue Network for Wayne County Animals which has a following of over 9.3k members that share and pledge on each post. All of these ladies had been involved in working with the Last Chance program before or at other animal controls working with rescues. They would go in to the pound, assess the animals, love them, walk them, take pictures and videos, and post to the Facebook group and work to find a rescue. This involved the volunteers being glued to their phones and networking day and night to find rescues before an animal was euthanized for space. At this time, the city of Jesup and Wayne County worked with us on giving us time as they could. Sometimes this meant an animal was there for over a month but we worked diligently to always provide empty kennels for animals coming in.

Our country was hit with covid in 2020 causing many people to seek animals for companionship while they were at home. Now that covid is coming to an end, we have an influx of animals being dumped at the pound as people are going back to work. Also with the current economic situation in our country, many citizens can not afford to take care of their animals and sometimes even themselves. Our little 10 kennel pound is constantly filling up but our volunteers continue to work around the clock to get these animals out and to rescue.

In the last 6 months, Kathy, Simone, Heather and Lori had saved over 99.5% of the animals that had come into the pound. These statistics are unheard of but we worked tirelessly and have a fantastic following of rescues that facilitate these animals being able to go to their rescue to find homes and get medical attention. Our animals go all over the country to New Jersey, New York, California, Florida and many other states not just our local area. 

On June 15, Kathy Jones received a text  with a list from one of the animal control officers that had 15 animals on it that had to be out in 36 hours or they would be euthanized. TEN of those were puppies! Our response to that demand was very negative and somewhat hostile and disrespectful as I am sure most people's response would be. The officer's response answer always is he’s “following orders. “

A hectic 36 hours of networking, finding rescues, transports ensued.
During the text the officer said that I could call LT Jonathan McCollough whom had given him the order to see if he could explain why. Of course in the chaos of pending death that call waited till Monday, June 20 and we had pleasant conversation of him explaining he’s also "following orders from City Manager Rose Marcus." His job is/was to enforce policy. Kathy Jones asked for a meeting ASAP. That was granted with LT, Major Reddish and Captain Hamilton but the animal control officers were not permitted to come and voice their opinion. Both of these Officers have seldom if at all had been in the pound and City Manager, Rose Marcus, had never even seen the inside of the pound let alone the faces of the animals that she was issuing to die. 

On June 21, Kathy Jones, Air Elliot (local cat rescue founder who enables most of the cats to be rescued), and team member Simone Gieck met with the above individuals for a courteous, business like meeting while Lori Durham ran to the pound to get pictures of the new animals that had just come in incase, we were no longer allowed to facilitate rescues at animal control after this meeting. During the 1 1/2 hour meeting, Kathy went over every detail of what’s involved with getting animals into rescue and how long some can take. Some get out day 3, others can take 30 but average 10. Kathy had her figures and statistics and presented them. During a critical time in our country when animal rescues and humane societies were filled the team struggled to give a minimum of 3 pens free each week but made sure there was animals constantly going to rescue. Kathy presented our numbers taken directly from Ga Dept of Agriculture monthly reports. We presented the fact that the past 6 month live release rate here is 99.5%. Kathy presented that total printout at the meeting. She then presented a proposal from Wags Rescue to update an antiquated , almost 10 year old contract.

That proposal was a minimum of time we need to do the volunteer job . We are a service to this community, the City of Jesup, free labor, free networking and only have the best interest of the animals and pound at heart. Towards the end of the meeting LT McCollough then revealed HE made the order to kill. He revealed he was in a meeting with city Animal Control officers discussing the need of ,or not the need of ,two officers there. Officers stated the pound stays full and it takes two of them. His reply was "I can fix that now, and ordered the killing of whatever had been there over 5 days." Hasty? Yes!
Kathy then asked these questions:
-At any time did you give thought to the fact you were killing 10 puppies. His answer,” no ma'am I did not”
-At any time did you give any thought or research to know your pound has 99.5% live release rate. His answer “no ma'am I did not”
-We’re you aware or ask if we clear /empty minimum 3 kennels a week for space. His answer “ no ma'am I did not”.
-Do you have a back up plan for the pound when we do not sign a contract that simply doesn’t work. His answer ”no ma'am I do not. We go back to the 3 day stray hold and then euthanize.”
-Are you even aware we have networked and run that program for almost 10 years? His answer was “I’m here to enforce policy/contracts”.
-Kathy asked could he lift the 5 day hold restriction since we had created 9 empty kennels in the last 4 days? His answer, no ma'am, the contract /policy is enforced and only 5 days stand.”

We were then thanked for coming, told they would present to their commanders our proposal. We waited and on Friday , June 24 we received the email attached. The contract had not changed, verbatim to all previous contracts with the animals dying at the end of the 5 days. Kathy declined this contract as we know what we have to have. It’s clear either we weren’t heard, or they just don’t care about lives!

What’s different you might ask? Why change it now? My answer is simple, Never have we had an administration who orders /executes/ following a 5 day hold. It’s impossible! But, he clearly stated more than once, he enforces contract on command from his superior Rose Marcus and will not waiver, it’s his job! The citizens of this community deserve better! The citizens of this community deserve to know what has transpired. If they lose a pet, heaven forbid they don’t retrieve it in the Ga mandated hold time of 3 days.

We are actively trying to get the pet population here down and Wags is offering free spay/neuters to the community. To date Wags in the last 3 months has done over 350 free spay/neuters to decrease the pet population. We are also have a second free microchipping event before the fireworks holiday! The busiest time for intake in any pound is coming. Summer months the intakes are higher and we need immediate resolution to the atrocities about to occur in this town.

Please consider what is happening here and act accordingly. This just cannot be happening but it is! We are doing our part with our volunteer efforts but the CITY and COUNTY ARE  NOT.  We no longer have a contract , therefore the killing begins this week! Luckily but unluckily, there is only one dog in the pound but he is the first to be killed if his owners don't step up with proof of ownership. 1 DOG ONLY BUT KILLED, NOT FOR SPACE BUT DUE TO AN ANTIQUATED POLICY!!!!!!

ARE YOU OK WITH THIS???? BECAUSE I SURE AM NOT! PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION AND LET THE CITY OF JESUP, ROSE MARCUS, LT MC COULLOUGH, MAYOR RALPH HICKOX, AND ALL THE COMMISSIONERS KNOW THIS IS NOT OKAY!! PLEASE CALL AND EMAIL CITY HALL AND OUR COMMISIONERS THAT WE NEED CHANGE AND NOT TO EUTHANIZE OUR ANIMALS. 

MAYOR RALPH HICKOX JR, 912-424-7075, mayor@jesupga.gov

CITY ADMISTRATOR ROSE MARCUS, 912-427-1313, rmarcus@jesupga.gov

COMMISSIONER DR. PAMELA SHUMAN, 912-294-4406, pshuman@jesupga.gov

COMMISSIONER TIM COCKFIELD, 912-427-4872, tcockfield@jesupga.gov

COMMISSIONER STANLEY TODD, 912-294-1480, standleytodd@comcast.net

COMMISSIONER RAY HOUSE, 912-530-7824, rhouse92@bellsouth.net

COMMISSIONER BILL HARVEY, 912-256-4114, buggert21@hotmail.com