News 12 at 11 o'clock, August 12, 2008

COLUMBIA CTY, Ga.---The Sindelar family only spent a few hours with a stray they found wandering a busy highway, but they say Columbia County Animal Control should have done more before they decided to put it to sleep.

So far this year in Columbia County alone, almost 1,300 animals have been euthanized.

Just over a week ago, Dawn Sindelar found a stray puppy. She turned it over to animal control because she was going out of town. A few days later she called back, wanting to adopt the stray. "We had gone out and bought all the supplies even, because we just thought it was gonna be ours," says Dawn.

But it wasn't theirs. The Columbia County Animal Care and Control told Dawn the puppy got sick, and had to be put down. "I said, was he throwing up? And they said yes. But they wouldn't offer what was wrong with him. They weren't telling us anything," says Dawn.

Dawn wishes they had let her know he was sick. She would have paid for him to see a vet. "I had called so much they knew I had wanted the dog. They didn't give us the option of making the decision to invest in the health care of the dog," says Dawn.

"This is one that came in, we did give it shots, it did get sick and we did have to euthanize it. We have to make that decision daily because you don't want it spreading to other parts of the shelter," says Animal Care and Control Manager Linda Fulmer.

Animal care sees more than 6,000 animals each year. About half are adopted or returned to their owners. The others are euthanized. Some because of health or behavior, but most because of the lack of space. "We're looking at animals as who've been here the longest and that's usually the ones we have to pull when we do run out of space," says Fulmer.

Animal cares says people always have the option of keeping a stray instead of bringing it to them. Dawn says if she could do it again, she wouldn't have taken him there.

Animal control says they are not allowed to call a family about a stray. That's why Dawn never knew there was a problem.

When you hand over an animal it becomes county property and they have to look out for the best interest of the whole shelter not just one animal.