With a new home will come new services, the county’s head of animal control said.

Last week, work began on a new Carroll County Animal Shelter on Automation Drive. When it’s up and running, the shelter will offer expanding medical and pet-adoption services, said Animal Control Director Lee Gorman.

“Our goal is that all pets will be spayed and neutered, have rabies and maybe some other vaccines, and a wellness check by a licensed vet,” said Gorman. “We can adopt out with all of that already being accomplished for the customer.”

Gorman said adoption costs would go up, but the fees would still be less expensive than if new pet owners did everything themselves. Georgia law says that any pet adopted from a shelter must be spayed or neutered by the time it reaches maturity.

The current shelter, located on Zyzzx Street, can hold around 200 animals and does not have on-site spaying and neutering, said shelter manager Mike Jacquinot. The county takes in between 8,000 and 10,000 animals a year.

Improved medical care could help more of the animals find homes.

“It’s basically a kennel environment, so disease get passed around really quickly,” said Carroll County Humane Society Vice President Julie Talbot. “The shelter is small, the resources just aren’t provided.”

This year, animal control requested $428,160 from the county government. County commissioners approved a budget of $379,500.

Gorman said his department’s resources are stretched thin.

“When you have a staff of five serving all the unincorporated territories and five municipalities, they’re going to always have something pending on their plates,” he said. “We’re a very, very active little department.”

Animal Control recently came under fire from officials in Villa Rica for not writing citations. Gorman said his officers haven’t been writing citations because the Magistrate Court won’t take them up because of a software glitch.

“The judge said he thought he could start hearing these cases again in October. Every element of the job requirement is being filled except for their inability to write citations in Magistrate Court,” said Gorman. “If you place a call to the shelter, the officer will respond in due course.”

Chief Magistrate Al Johnson was not taking animal cases because the court’s computer system did not allow for differentiation between county and municipal cases. Last Monday, Tim Clark, president and chief executive officer of county IT firm The Information Age, said municipal codes had been programmed into the system and it was up to Johnson when to resume hearing cases.