Residents push for action on DeKalb shelter | www.myajc.com

via Residents push for action on DeKalb shelter | www.myajc.com.

“There is a lot of politics going on, and in the meantime, there are animals dying,” said Sonali Saindane, a teacher from central DeKalb who heads the county’s animal services advisory board. “We need action.”

CEO Burrell Ellis and allies on the county’s commission put forward a plan last month that would speed up construction on a new facility advocates have argued is critical to reducing the number of unwanted pets in the county.

The plan: use $2.75 million in federal stimulus money to design and start construction of a shelter on five acres adjacent to DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in Chamblee.

A center is a key goal named in 2012 citizen task force report on DeKalb animal services. The report was especially damning about the existing shelter, calling the dilapidated building off Memorial Drive a “chamber of horrors” where humans and animals alike suffered amid bug infestations, mold and other problems.

Still, county officials expected a new shelter would be delayed until at least late 2014, in part because of struggles to find a large enough parcel with easy access.