Georgia Animal Rights and Protection

TONIGHT! World-renowned cetacean expert, Dr. Lori Marino, will be on WRFG 89.3 FM at 6 PM (ET) streaming live at wrfg.org, to discuss the recent issues around the Georgia Aquarium and the beluga whales that have been shipped there. WE WILL BE TAKING CALL-IN QUESTIONS DURING THE SHOW FOR DR. MARINO AT: 404-523-8989.

2 beluga whales settling in at Georgia Aquarium after trip from Canada The Georgia Aquarium was part of a massive effort to relocate 30 beluga whales at a shuttered aquatic park near Niagara Falls, bringing two of them to Atlanta.

Investigators say evidence showed Monroe County animal control officer Carlos Santillan put four live puppies into the incinerator.

"Obviously, people can get away with a lot of things up until they don't, and this was a case where he felt comfortable doing it. It looked to me like there was no second thought — he just walked back there and did what he did, which was bad," Monroe County Sheriff Brad Freeman said.

The case will now be turned over to the district attorney's office, where it will go before a grand jury. If indicted, prosecutors will handle the case from there. Please contact the Monroe County District Attorney and the Chief Assistant District Attorney and urge that they prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law.

District Attorney Dorothy V. Hull [email protected]

Chief Assistant District Attorney [email protected]

DA’s office phone: 478-994-7652

'Horrific': Georgia animal control officer arrested, accused of burning 4 dogs alive A Georgia animal control officer was arrested on suspicion that he burned four live puppies inside an incinerator.

Thank you to everyone who came out on Friday to speak up for Okha. There are more opportunities today (7/4) and Sunday (7/5) to come out and help

Who is Okha? She is an elderly elephant who was stolen from her home in India when she was a baby and has been forced to perform for decades. She is isolated and in poor health, yet they contine to use and abuse her.

Thank you to PETA for organizing the protests against the cruel Loomis Bros. Circus.

Please DO NOT park in the circus parking lot. Drive past the entrance to the circus and park in the residential neighborhood.

https://facebook.com/events/s/lawrenceville-ga-protest-for-a/870826576106781/

Huge thanks to Fulton County Solicitor Keith E. Gammage for his outstanding record of prosecuting crimes against animals. Carl Earl Jones, a serial dog abuser, has been convicted on 24 counts of animal cruelty and one count of violating the county’s dog limit ordinance. Charges were brought after surveillance videos surfaced showing Jones repeatedly punching, dragging, and body-slamming dogs in public and in his driveway. Police and Fulton County Animal Control executed a search warrant at his property and recovered 23 dogs living in deplorable, neglected conditions. Jones was sentenced to 24 years, 2 years served in prison, followed by 22 years of probation. Additionally, he may not own, keep, or care for any animals for the full 24 years, must complete a course on animal cruelty, and pay a $1,000 fine. The Solicitor General’s press release includes this quote and statement: "Immanuel Kant said, We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals, and today’s victory provides a clear statement that there is no place for animal abuse in Fulton County." Click the link below to read the entire release.

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An 18-year-old tourist visiting New York City with his family was killed when a Central Park carriage horse bolted and took off in the park on Wednesday afternoon, throwing him from the carriage. This has happened just one week after a carriage horse dropped dead in Central Park.

This is what happens when you sit on your hands and do nothing.
Horses have died and now a young man’s parents will never see him again. This was 100% preventable.

Ryder's Law was supposed to get a vote in December. It didn't. Now, after yet another preventable tragedy, we're joining NYCLASS in calling for an emergency stoppage of horse-drawn carriage operations immediately, until Ryder’s Law is passed.

Speaker Julie Menin, Lynn Schulman, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: pass Ryder’s Law NOW!

Please watch to learn about the proposed ban on tethering dogs in DeKalb County, as well as the effects and risks of tethering.

Most of the expert testimony occurs near the beginning of the meeting, followed by committee discussion. This portion of the meeting runs from approximately 12 to 60 minutes.

This is the DeKalb County Employee Relations and Public Safety (ERPS) Committee Meeting from June 2, 2026. At the conclusion of the meeting, a motion was made to defer the item for two weeks.

DeKalb County Employee Relations and Public Safety (ERPS) Committee Meeting - June 2, 2026 Aired live on DCTV (DeKalb County Television), Channel 23, this vid...

A Georgia Department of Agriculture inspection report obtained by Atlanta News First revealed the state issued Clayton County Animal Control a violation for not following state euthanasia protocols by using the state’s least recommended way to put animals down in the majority of cases. They then removed the violation the same day.

Drug logs provided by Clayton County Animal Control in previous records requests revealed the shelter’s staff veterinarian used the HEART STICK AS THE INITIAL METHOD OF EUTHANASIA NEARLY 90% from February 2025 to February 2026.

Rules and Regulations of the state of Georgia, along with Georgia animal protection law, require a lethal solution to be used in a specific order, starting with a vein. If a vet cannot access a vein, then they are to inject through the abdomen. The last option is through the heart, commonly referred to as the heart stick. GDA rules are clear: A HEART STICK CAN ONLY BE USED IF THE DOG OR CAT IS UNCONSCIOUS. The American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines for euthanasia state that an animal must be unconscious, not just sedated, so the animal can’t perceive pain.

Clayton County animal shelters are publicly funded, but the public isn’t allowed inside. Only staff and state prisoners on work duty are permitted to enter, and no volunteers are employed. The only way to see what’s happening to the animals is through open records requests and internal cameras.

Last year, a disturbing video footage accessed through an open records request showed workers at the Clayton County Animal Control shelter being extremely abusive to animals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1i43Jx1wXo

County commissioners control county budgets and can influence policies, staffing, oversight, and funding priorities affecting animal control operations.

Please contact the commissioners and urge them to take action to ensure that the shelter is a safe haven for animals—many of whom have already suffered cruel neglect, abuse, and abandonment—and that all personnel who are tasked with handling them are properly trained and competent.

Dr. Alieka Anderson-Henry
Chairwoman, Clayton County Commissioner
[email protected] Phone: (770) 477-3208

Alaina Reaves
Vice Chair District 1, Clayton County Board of Commissioners
[email protected] Phone: Phone: (770) 477-3213

Gail Hambrick
District 2 Commissioner, Clayton County Board of Commissioners
[email protected] Phone: Phone: (770) 603-4135

Tashe Allen
District 3 Commissioner, Clayton County Board of Commissioners
[email protected] Phone: (770) 473-5465

DeMont Davis
District 4 Commissioner, Clayton County Board of Commissioners
[email protected] Phone: (770) 473-5445

‘They don’t have a voice’ | Clayton County shelter euthanasia practices criticized The Georgia Department of Agriculture has not explained why a violation was removed the same day it was issued.

ACTION ALERT FOR GEORGIA ANIMALS!

When the Deer Lake HOA in Alpharetta, Georgia decided to trap and kill beavers that had been damaging trees around its neighborhood lake, it did not make that decision lightly. According to the HOA's own letter to residents, it contacted more than 10 wildlife trappers in North Georgia looking for relocation options. None were willing or able to help.

The reason is not a shortage of goodwill. It is Georgia law.

Under Georgia Department of Natural Resources rules, relocated beavers can only be released on private property. Because beavers are classified as nuisance animals, they cannot be released on state-owned land, wildlife management areas, or state parks. In practice, that means finding a private landowner willing to accept beavers, a near-impossible task that left this HOA with no legal humane alternative to lethal control.

That is a policy failure, not a wildlife management solution.

Beavers are native to Georgia. They are also ecologically valuable. Beaver activity creates wetland habitats that improve water filtration, reduce downstream flooding, and support biodiversity. The animals being framed as pests in Alpharetta are the same animals conservation scientists point to as natural infrastructure for healthy watersheds. Georgia's current rules make it easier to kill them than to put them to work somewhere they belong.

Meanwhile, residents of Deer Lake are divided and frustrated, not because the HOA acted in bad faith, but because the system gave it nowhere else to turn. Many residents found out about the trapping through Facebook posts, not through any formal HOA notification process.

We are calling on the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to reform its rules to allow beaver relocation to appropriate state-managed wildlife areas, on the Georgia legislature to review and modernize the state's nuisance animal classification for native species, to require a documented humane alternatives review before any HOA or property owner authorizes lethal wildlife control, and to mandate that HOAs formally notify residents and allow community input before making lethal wildlife management decisions.

The beavers in Alpharetta did not choose to be a nuisance. They chose a lake. Georgia's laws made killing them the only option. Sign this petition to demand Georgia change those laws before the next community faces the same impossible choice.

Sign the Petition Reform Georgia's Beaver Relocation Rules and End the Policy That Forces Lethal Control