Liberty County Animal Services can again pick up stray animals after a state investigation resulted in no charges related to an incident during which a county worker used a crossbow to kill two street dogs and mortally injure a third during a dog fight.
The ban on picking up strays lasted more just over a month and ended Friday, when the county and Georgia Department of Agriculture signed a consent agreement and allegations of animal cruelty were dismissed. During that period, the Georgia Coastal Health District logged 25 bite calls in Liberty County.
The details surrounding the dog fight last October and Liberty County’s handling of the complaint remain murky. The original complaint was made by Long County Animal Shelter, according to the Agriculture Department’s investigative report. That report claimed that LCAS Director Steve Marrero and Animal Control Officer George Lynch violated Georgia’s aggravated animal cruelty law when attempting to kill the presumably dangerous dogs…