Meet ACC Animal Services and long-time volunteer Bill Dunston | Art and culture

Athens-Clarke County Animal Services takes in all stray animals, from cats and dogs to guinea pigs and a ball python. The mission of the municipal facility and open shelter is to protect stray animals in the community while protecting the community from dangerous animals.

According to the Athenspets website, ACC Animal Services helps train and socialize the animals while learning about them. They can then promote the animals on social media to help them return home or find an adopter.

Chandler Hogan is the Volunteer Coordinator at ACC Animal Services and manages the shelter’s volunteer training and logistics, as well as numerous outreach and adoption activities.

Hogan said the shelter is “very fortunate” with its volunteer base, which averages 600 hours of volunteer work each month.

Bill Dunston is a long-time member of this volunteer base and has now been volunteering with ACC Animal Services for eight years. Dunston said he particularly enjoys working with dogs that have been at the shelter for a long time and “perhaps need to be shown in a better environment.” His goal is to “do everything” “to make a dog more adoptable.”

Dunston helps socialize the animals by putting them in outdoor enclosures on the property and taking them on outings outside the shelter, such as bathing at Pet Supplies Plus. Atlas is one of the dogs Dunston helps socialize and has been at the shelter since October 7th.

“(Atlas) got there and trusted me completely,” Dunston said. “I cleaned his ears. I bathed him, sprayed him, scrubbed him. I’m just trying to build a sense of trust.”

The shelter welcomes all individuals and groups who would like to volunteer at the shelter’s adoption center.

Becoming a volunteer with ACC Animal Services requires completing three steps: an online application and waiver, online training through Fear Free Shelters, and in-person training and internship.

Fear Free Shelters offers a 30-minute, free online course to teach you how to cope without fear. Volunteers and staff try to minimize the animals’ stress levels through their handling skills because the environment at the shelter is “already so stressful” for the animals, Hogan said.

“This is why we don’t corner dogs and why we need to hold cats with both hands and how to recognize what tail wagging means when they’re stressed,” Hogan said. “What are other stress signals and things like that?”

When the stray animals are initially brought to the shelter, they are not allowed to be touched by the public for the first five days, Hogan said.

At the end of the five days, volunteers receive a color based on the number of hours volunteered and the animals’ ability to handle them. The colors vary on a scale of green, purple, blue and red depending on the animal’s control ability and are intended to ensure that volunteers are prepared and comfortable with handling the different animals.

“The longer you are here and the more comfortable you become, the more complex cases you will be allowed to handle,” Hogan said.

For Dunston, volunteering at the animal shelter is a “very important” part of his life.

“I’m not getting paid for this, but I think I’m helping,” Dunston said. “I really think it’s just a help, and that makes me very happy.”