Newspaper Page Text
The Champion, Thursday, July 2 - 8, 2015
LOCAL
Page 3A
Pet Buddies
expands into
DeKalb
by Ashley Oglesby
ashley@dekalb champ, com
Pet Buddies cofounder
and executive director
Heather Koehler and co
founder Dee McGowan
were both volunteers for
county shelters where they
witnessed animals being
turned in because their
owners could no longer af
ford to take care of them.
That’s when the two decided
to open Pet Buddies Food
Pantry.
Since 2010, the orga
nization has spayed and
neutered more than 1,000
animals around Atlanta. In
August 2015 Pet Buddies
will begin donating pet food
in East Atlanta and Decatur.
The nonprofit, volun
teer-based organization
works with low-income
families, seniors, disabled
and homeless individuals to
assist with food and medical
needs for their pets.
Koehler said, “We ini
tially started Pet Buddies to
get pet food to families that
could not afford it. We also
incorporated spaying and
neutering because at the
end of the day if we are not
spaying and neutering a lot
of these animals begin pro
creating. What happens with
a lot of communities that we
work in, when the animal
starts to have kittens or pup
pies they’re going to end up
in an animal shelter.”
She added, “Some of
the animal shelters here in
Georgia, if the animals are
under two pounds they’re
immediately euthanized
so they don’t even get a
chance.”
Koehler said Pet Bud
dies’ mission is to decrease
the number of cats and dogs
on the streets and entering
animal control due to finan
cial hardships.
“We reach out to under
served communities to edu
cate, donate pet food, offer
free spay and neuter, flea
medicine and anything else
the family needs.”
She added, “When we
have additional funding, we
trap, neuter and return cats,
build fencing for chained
dogs, provide dog housing
and winter help for animals
that live outdoors.”
Pet Buddies assists an
average of 100 families a
month. Every animal that
goes through the Pet Bud
dies program is required
to be spayed or neutered, if
they aren’t the organization
pays for it.
“Pet Buddies has no
overhead. Our storage is at
our homes. We all have full
time careers, so our efforts
are 100 percent volunteer.
Due to this, the money goes
directly to the animals that
desperately need it in our
community,” Koehler said.
She added, “All of our
volunteers help pick up food
from people that have done
donation drives or donated
specifically to our program.
We have bins around town
where people donate, our
volunteers pick up the
food and we store it at our
houses. We donate the food
quickly, so we don’t need a
storage area because we’re
constantly donating food.”
Pet Buddies delivers
donations once a month.
However, Koehler said, “We
always have people who
send in their applications
who say they’re feeding their
animal bread or their pets
haven’t eaten in a couple of
days. We’re constantly filling
in these emergency situa
tions every day, bringing
food to people that need it
right there and then.”
Koehler said Pet Bud
dies’ food pantry is always
in the need of donations and
volunteers.
For additional informa
tion about Pet Buddies Food
Pantry visit petbuddiesfood-
pantry.org.
LIKE US ON
FACEBOOK!
f CHAMPIONNEWSPAPER
Joseph and his dog JoJo are a part of the Pet
Buddies program. Joseph also assists the food
pantry with distributing food.
Pet Buddies recently hosted a trailer park program which
helped more than 100 animals get spayed and neutered.
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Donation stations for Pet Buddies’ food pantry.
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**
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NOTICE OF PROPERTY TAX INCREASE
The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners has tentatively adopted a millage rate
which will require an increase in property taxes by 40.00 percent.
All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at
the Manuel Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Drive, Decatur, GA 30030 on July 14,
2015 at 10:00 am.
This tentative increase will result in a millage rate of 11.683 mills, an increase of 3.338
mills. Without this tentative tax increase, the millage rate will be no more than 8.345
mills. The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $175,000 is
approximately $111.36 and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with
a fair market value of $250,000 is approximately $273.72.
This increase is due to a temporary shift in millages done in FY 2014 to keep the total tax
rate constant or smaller. DeKalb County has seven basic tax levies. Only two are used
in this required calculation. In 2014, these two rates combined went down from 11.51
to 9.02 while other rates were increased temporarily. In 2015, the two rates combined
went back up to 11.28 which still are below the 2014 rate. This upward shift requires an
advertisement of an increase. When all seven levies are added together the typical
resident will see a decrease from 21.21 to 20.81 mills in 2015.