Augusta’s public safety committee is expected to take up a scathing review of city animal services and a faulty emergency alerting system at its Tuesday meeting.
Best Friends Animal Society has offered to provide grant-funded help to animal services. It says the Augusta department leads the state and is 32nd in the nation for its “lifesaving gap,” or the number of animals needlessly killed.
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Well-funded Best Friends has provided similar assistance to other U.S. cities. It’s also been the target of lawsuits for failing to warn unsuspecting volunteers and adoptive families about dangerous dogs.
In 2023, only 53.8% of Augusta dogs and cats able to be saved made it out of the shelter alive. During that time, 1,295 dogs were put down, according to Best Friends, whose goal is saving 90% of adoptable animals that enter shelters.
The review goes into detail about Augusta’s euthanasia practices, which it says include using inappropriately-sized needles, inadequate solution, no sedation and removing animals from the euthanasia room before they are dead.
Augusta staff will pick up an animal at the owner’s request to surrender it, while the shelter’s return-to-owner rate for lost dogs is 10% below the national average, the group said.
Best Friends disagrees with rapid behavior assessments performed on pets entering the shelter and said Augusta killed 486 dogs based only on behavior from August to March.
The group says the shelter should focus on getting the animals out of the shelter setting and into foster or other care where a more complete assessment can be performed.
Read more of the shelter operational assessment here.
Purvis Systems grabbed the attention of an area media outlet after it took 15 minutes to dispatch a fire truck to an alarm at the news station. An incident report said “Purvis wasn’t working,” so first responders had to be informed manually.
Augusta bought the emergency alerting system in 2019. It’s supposed to automatically notify needed responders nearest to the incident, using an internet-based network with radio and other backup with clear information about the call.
Commissioner Catherine Smith McKnight, chair of the public safety committee, put a discussion of the system’s issues on Tuesday’s agenda.
In a statement, Augusta Fire Department has since said the issue isn’t with Purvis, but “lies with information transmission” involving Augusta E-911’s computer-assisted dispatch system.
Purvis says in company literature it is supposed to “integrate seamlessly with your community’s CAD system.”
AFD will continue to”collaborative troubleshooting with Purvis and the 911 CAD system provider,” the fire department statement said.
Gateway sculpture ‘Lucy’s Garden’ goes for committee recommendation
In other action, Augusta committees are set to approve Lucy’s Garden, a public art sculpture designed by Augusta artists Wesley and Colleen Beyer Stewart.
The 30- by 120-foot sculpture will be installed on Sandbar Ferry Road and is one of three funded by a $750,000 SPLOST 7 allocation.
The sculpture features renowned Augusta educator Lucy Craft Laney and Augusta musical legends James Brown and Jessye Norman, the Stewarts said.
It will be illuminated at night and feature native flowers and multiple viewpoints that depend on the viewer’s direction of travel, they said.
The city finance committee will resume efforts to approve hiring UHY Advisors Mid-Atlantic to audit the Parks and Recreation department, and is set to approve a 2025 budget calendar that includes a June 17 budget retreat and Aug. 2 deadline for the submission of budget requests.
