Viewing the cats at Athens-Clarke County Animal Services

Athens-Clarke County Animal Services now advertises the shelter animals! To find a new friend, go to their online listing of cats or drop by the shelter.

Please act quickly!

The Athens-Clarke County Animal Services shelter is a municipal, open-admission shelter. This means that it takes in owner surrendered animals from Athens-Clarke County residents and stray animals found by county residents or found in Athens-Clarke County limits whether or not there is available space (owners looking to surrender animals may be asked to schedule an appointment to do so but if you cannot hold onto the animal until the scheduled time, let staff know–they will work with you).

At Athenspets we are firm believers in having open-admission shelters; animals without another safe place to be need a place they can go instead of being left to wander and struggle to survive on their own or being hastily given to someone who will not have their best interests in mind. However, this means that critically injured animals, terminally ill and suffering animals, and aggressive animals are admitted and generally euthanized. In addition, because animals are admitted even when there is no available space at the shelter, at times they euthanize healthy, nonaggressive animals, including those that would make great pets but that are struggling in the high-stress shelter environment.

As a result, adopters and rescues need to act quickly, to help ensure space is available for the animals that need it.

Provided veterinary care

All cats receive FVRCP vaccination, basic deworming, microchipping, and combo testing on impound. Most cats are also vaccinated against rabies and all are spayed or neutered prior to adoption.

Adoption & rescue process generally

Information about ACCAS’s adoption and rescue process can be found on the county website. Online applications and applications during the stray hold period are no longer accepted, and rescues cannot place an application on an animal the first day it is available.

Because about half of our adoption applications fall through, it is worth putting an application on the cat of your choice, even if you’re not first in line!

Adoption fees

The current standard adoption fees for cats are:

$50: Kittens 6 months old or younger.

$25: Any adult cat over 6 months old.

Meeting the cats

Drop by the ACCAS shelter (125 Buddy Christian Way in Athens) any day from 11-4 except Sundays (12-3) and Mondays & holidays (closed to the public). Please note that cats in foster homes can not be viewed on a drop in basis.

We recommend bringing any human household members the cat MUST get along with to the shelter for a meet-and-greet prior to adoption. This includes young children and elderly household members. Staff can help you make a great match!

Rescuing a cat

In Georgia, only rescues licensed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture can take transfer of animals from a shelter if the transfer occurs in the state of Georgia. If you are an out-of-state rescue interested in helping with out our animals, please email info@athenspets.net for information about how we can help you become a rescue partner.

Georgia licensed rescues interested in helping: please send a copy of your GDA license and a signed “authorized person” form to animalservices@accgov.com, with information about the types (or specific identities) of the cats you can help.

There are no pull fees and no restrictions on which animals a rescue may pull, except that rescues may not pull animal the first day that it is available other than where an animal is designated as “rescue only” (which includes all underage kittens and nursing moms with kittens).

If you are interested in rescuing a “rescue only” cat but need help with expenses, email info@athenspets.net to see if sponsorship could be made available. Other animals may have private pledges of sponsorship as well; we can let you know these amounts (we are still coming up with a good way to advertise the amounts now that the shelter is publicizing the animals and will update this section when we can).

More information about rescuing an animal from Athens-Clarke County Animal Services can be found here.