Liberty County has agreed to a consent order with the state Department of Agriculture following an incident involving its animal control department, including several thousand dollars in fines.
The state Agriculture Department, which oversees animal shelters and kennels across Georgia, issued the order following an October 2025 incident involving animal control officers’ use of crossbows on a pack of loose dogs.
Operations at the animal control facility were suspended pending an internal review of operations and the state’s inquiry, and those inquiries and reviews have been completed, county attorney Kelly Davis said.
With the consent order now executed by the state and the county, operations at animal control can return to normal and it can resume taking in animals.
The Department of Agriculture received a complaint in January about the October incident, and as a result of its initial findings, issued a stop order on animal control, barring it from taking in any more animals.
According to the consent order, issued last week, the incident in question began when a resident called about five stray dogs in the woods behind her property. An animal control officer tried to capture the dogs after feeding them, in light of the dogs’ fearful and defensive manner.
When the officer captured a dog with a snare, the other dogs began acting aggressively toward that dog. Because of their apparent aggression, the officer was told the other dogs had to be captured. Those efforts were unsuccessful, and the use of a tranquilizer dart was requested. But the animal control director told the officers to use a crossbow instead to prevent the dogs from going into a nearby neighborhood.
An officer used a crossbow to shoot and kill two dogs and shot a third dog that escaped but was presumed to have died. The fifth dog was captured and the two captured dogs were euthanized.
Crossbows had been issued to animal control officers but had never been used and the state ag department determined only informal safety training had been given on the weapons. There also was no formal policy on their use and no training for the officers to be proficient on the weapons.
The consent order levied $5,000 in fines upon animal control, with $2,500 due within 30 days of Ag Commissioner Tyler Harper executing the consent order. Within 12 months of the consent order going into effect, the county animal control has to expend at least the remaining $2,500 on training of its staff for best practices regarding the safe and humane impoundment of animals.
According to a Hinesville Police Department report on the incident, two uniformed animal control officers, a supervisor in plain clothes and a civilian were along Paul Caswell Boulevard on the night of October 9 as HPD officers were dispatched to help with a reported animal problem.
HPD officers saw the two uniformed animal control officers had pistols in their belt holsters and were using crossbows to shoot at the pack of dogs. HPD officers found one of the dogs already dead, and the civilian, for his own safety, was asked to leave the area.
An animal control officer shot one of the dogs with the crossbow, and a female animal control officer retrieved the animal, using a catchpole.
According to the report, HPD officers did not engage in shooting any of the dogs.
The county also will submit revised standard operating procedures to the state detailing how animal control will comply with the acts and rules cited in the consent order. That submission also must address how animal control will conduct humane care and euthanasia for animals from first encounter to disposition from the animal shelter and protocols on use of force against stray animals.
The county also conducted an internal investigation separate from the state department’s probe and took independent personnel action on animal control employees involved.