Unwanted pets get a ride north

Oconee’s unwanted pets can now ride in style to new homes in the northeast, where there is a shortage of adoptable cats and dogs.  Nearly $55 thousand worth of donations provided the county Humane Society a new, customized Mercedes van that can transport 25 to 30 animals at a time.  The Humane Society’s old van could haul only about eight. What was worse was the old van had registered 200 thousand miles and volunteer drivers, such as Eric Hidle, often wondered if it would make it as far north as Maine.  According to figures from Sheriff Mike Crenshaw, the number of stray dogs and cats taken into the Oconee County Animal Shelter has fallen 28 percent over the last five years while adoptions have increased 60 percent. Credit is given to a spay/neuter program the county started in 2009 aimed at low-income county residents.