UPDATE: State continues its investigation into the Laurens County Animal Control

Laurens County Animal Control is closed pending an investigation by the State Department of Agriculture.

UPDATE (4/4/2022): The State Department of Agriculture sent a release to the 41NBC Newsroom to give an update on the investigation of the Laurens County Animal Shelter.

It states the investigation remains on going and they continue working with county officials.  They say the discussions are going well with the mutual goal of lifting the order as soon as possible.

“The Georgia Department of Agriculture has placed a temporary stop order on the Laurens county animal shelter while an investigation is pending.  The Department’s legal team is working with Laurens county government officials to address the issue and we hope to have the matter resolved as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience while we gather additional information.  The details of the investigation will be available upon the closing of the case”.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DUBLIN, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Laurens County Animal Control is closed pending an investigation by the State Department of Agriculture.

According to Bryan Rogers, the Laurens County Administrator, the county can’t comment at this time due to the ongoing investigation.

We spoke with animal advocate Catherine Wood, who says she rescued a dog from Laurens County Animal Control earlier this year. She says the dog she picked up was so emaciated that she rushed him to the emergency vet.

“I originally found out about the issues with cruelty and starvation when I pulled my dog King,” she said. “The animal control officer brought him out, and I was to say the least shocked at his condition.”

Wood says an investigation like this is a rare occurrence.

“For whatever reason, it must be pretty significant,” she said. “Because this is unprecedented for a government animal control to be shut down, so they must have something, whether it’s cruelty or starvation I don’t know, where they had to shut down.”

We did reach out to the State Department of Agriculture for a comment but we haven’t heard back at this time. We will update this story when we get more information.