A complaint about animal control was one of the items that topped the agenda at Tuesday night's meeting of the Rockmart

Mayor and Council.

Diane Locklear, Williamson Street, was a delegate. She said she had called 911

to report to animal control about dogs running around her neighborhood. The first call was made early Sunday morning when about nine dogs came up through Highland Park subdivision onto Williamson Street.

She said, about an hour later, Rockmart police officers came to her home and she was told 911 had reported the animal

contol officer would not come.

On Wednesday, she said she was confronted by a large dog on her back porch and successfully scared him away. She then turned on floodlights and saw a large dog in her fenced back yard.



“I am concerned about these dogs running around when we have small children that play in our neighborhood,” she said. “I was shocked when I learned that animal control would not respond.”

County Manager Clinton Lester said today he was not aware of any calls that had been made by Diane Locklear.

However, he said Polk's ordinance specifies that an animal control officer immediately responds when safety of either an animal or individual(dangerous dog)is involved.

“We don’t take this lightly,” he said.

Lester explained that, in many situations, the local police will respond to a call to 911 if animal control can not.

However, Lester pointed out that animal control means many things to different people.

“Everyone has a different opinion when it comes to controling, caring for or owning a dog,” he said.

Jeff Crawford, director, Polk County Animal Control, said he was not aware of

the incident involving dogs on the Locklear property. However, he said staff

had responded to previous complaints and had even set traps to catch dogs in that neighborhood.

He clarified procedure about “after hours” compaints involving animals.

“Our policy is that if it is after hours, a police officer responds and if they deem it necessary 911 is notified,” he explained.

“If needed, 911 calls an ‘on call’ animal control officer and he investigates it. We respond

immediately if it is a vicious dog, a dog bite, an animal has been injured by a vehicle or the police needs assistance getting into a residence.”

Crawford emphasized that animal control “always works with local police” and follows up on any report given to his department.

Regular hours at the Polk County Animal Control Center are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday and Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m.

According to Crawford, after hours include times before or after these defined periods.