North Augusta boosts animal control with new tech, fundraising concert

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WJBF) — Animal control is getting a boost in North Augusta’s new budget. 

The city will add a second full-time technician in July. They’ll give dogs more time outdoors and coordinate adoptions and rescue transports. The new hire will also manage volunteers on weekends.

“Then this will free up Officer Craig to do more the, of the law enforcement part of it, which we desperately need,” North Augusta Councilman Dennis Briatico said.

Leaders say right now, the officer is too busy to enforce animal laws. Stray dogs remain a problem, especially in Gentry Trailer Park, where pets have been attacked.

“We’ve had a few cases of abuse last year,” he recalls. “By the time the animal control officer gets done dealing with people coming and going and the volunteers coming, he has very little time to actually enforce the laws.”

The city is forming a committee to plan the future of animal control and the shelter. The landfill facility will get three short-term upgrades funded by the budget.

“Because even if we were to break ground on a new shelter first thing tomorrow morning, we wouldn’t have another shelter for two or three years,” Briatico added.

Volunteers are pitching in. The ‘Rock for Rescues’ concert, Friday at 7 p.m. at the Sharon Jones Amphitheater in North Augusta, will help.

“All this money that we’re gonna raise is gonna help go toward those improvements at the pound. And it’s going to go towards giving the pound dogs a broader future,” he said.