MOULTRIE — The Moultrie-Colquitt County Humane Society opened its building back up May 1, after being closed since March 12.

The organization has been taking steps to prevent the reoccurrence of parvo, which it has had frequently this year, by doing some deep-cleaning and renovations.

In an email to The Observer in March, Dawn Blanton, co-director of the Humane Society, stated, “After having a visit with our state Dept of Ag reps it was recommended that we epoxy the floors and repaint the shelter to help prevent the reoccurrence of Parvo and any other diseases.”

At a board meeting April 29, board member Marcie Meadows said, “I think most of you are aware of the status of the building and the needed repairs that we had, as far as painting and sealing the floors. Thanks to the County, they came in and did some concrete work on several of the kennel areas. Closed-up some holes and things like that.”

Co-director of the Humane Society Courtney Azar added, “They’ll be finished today and we’ll be back taking dogs inside starting Wednesday.”

He said that any crack or hole that they could find in the building, which could potentially harbor parvo, was filled.

Meadows said that the building did look much better after the repairs and Azar encouraged the board members to go and look at it.

Azar said while the shelter had been closed, he and Blanton had been taking turns handling calls, which were forwarded from the organization’s phone to their mobiles.

“We’ve got the animal control part covered as far as phone calls,” he said.

He explained that they weren’t able to pick a dog up but they would take a kennel and food to the individual who reported it. Then, they would be logged-in on a list.

“We’re going to go back out when we open back up and pick those dogs up. … Even though, the shelter has been closed, we’re still out there doing stuff,” he said.

He also said that the Humane Society was licensed for 80 animals but, when it opened last week, it would start out taking only 30.

County Administrator Chas Cannon was at the meeting and Azar asked him if he had spoken to City Manager Pete Dillard about another building for the Humane Society.

Cannon confirmed it and said, “Yeah, probably need to do another building. That’s probably the best course of action long-term.”

He went on to say that there was plenty of land at the Humane Society to do it and suggested that it be put in front of the current building. He said it could be something simple like a metal building.

He asked, rhetorically, what was the likelihood of a parvo outbreak in the future and added, “Nobody knows.”

He said, if that happened, they would have to be out there again having to keep dogs out of the building.

“That’s kind of my process on it. I think the commissioners question that a little bit,” he said and Azar said he would talk to them again.

“I think if we get the animals back in on Wednesday, that’ll take a lot of headache from our side. The commissioners were pretty concerned about getting phone calls from folks saying that no one was there at the shelter,” Cannon said.

Cannon said that, when he had spoken with Dillard, he had mentioned the new building and also the concerns about board members not showing up to meetings.

He also said that he didn’t know how Dillard felt about it but he thought that they might be in agreement that a new building is probably the best way forward.

“We just need to keep talking about that,” Cannon said.