DALTON, Ga. — Don Allen Garrett’s tenure as director of the Whitfield County Animal Shelter will end after some 25 years on Friday. But members of the county Board of Commissioners deny he was forced out.

Board Chairman Lynn Laughter confirmed Garrett’s retirement Monday night following an almost 45-minute executive session, closed to the public and media, to discuss personnel and property acquisition.

“His last official day is Friday. He will no longer be at the shelter,” she said.

Laughter said Garrett has been talking about retirement “for a while.”

“He turns 65 next June. I think he’d planned on retiring then, but I think he just got very weary,” she said.

County Administrator Mark Gibson said Garrett formally gave notice he would retire last week, just days after the Georgia Department of Agriculture stopped staff at the animal shelter from euthanizing animals because of questions about their training.

In an interview last week, Garrett said his retirement has nothing to do with the shelter losing its ability to euthanize.

“I’ve been on the job 25 years,” he said. “I always said I’d retire at 25 years, and it’s time. There’s nothing else to it. I can weather these storms.”

But Laughter said that “was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Commissioners denied that Garrett had been forced out.

“No, I was surprised that he did retire,” said Commissioner Barry Robbins.

Commissioner Greg Jones said as far as he was aware neither commissioners nor Gibson leaned on Garrett to retire.

In 2014, Garrett and Animal Services Technician David Hedden were suspended without pay after a dog at the shelter was mistakenly euthanized before the 10-day hold on the animal was up. In a memo to Garrett, Gibson said Garrett’s suspension was due to the wrong euthanization as well as “a culmination of your job performance, extensive travel outside of the work area for non-work-related reasons, and the general direction of (and the) public perception of the animal shelter mission and vision.”

At that time, Gibson ordered the shelter to begin calling owners to tell them the hold period was expiring before euthanizing an animal. He also ordered the shelter to clearly segregate animals being held for rabies quarantine and to mark their pens with the date the quarantine ends. In addition, he said he asked animal shelter staff to always double-check each other’s work when determining the date that an animal’s observation period will end.

Gibson said earlier this year he instructed Garrett that dogs should be euthanized only as a “last resort.”

Monday night, several people said the shelter’s kill rate soared from 5.5 percent in May to 20 percent in June after the shelter blocked animal rescue groups and others from going into the kennel area to see dogs.

Jo Ann Putnam said bringing dogs individually out into the lobby does not give rescuers the same insight into their temperament and their interaction with other dogs as being able to see them in the kennel area does.

Commissioners said they did not know if those numbers are accurate but would look into it.

“It’s concerning if that is true,” said Robbins.

But Laughter said she did not see the policy of not allowing the public into the back to change.

Some people said they had been blocked from commenting on the shelter’s Facebook page because they had been critical of the shelter’s operations. Laughter said she was surprised to hear that.

“I got a message from one person who said she had been blocked. I called Mark and asked him to call (the shelter) and tell them to unblock anybody who was not using foul language. I was told that was going to be done,” she said.  

Laughter said she expects changes will be made at the shelter.

“I had a call just today from a lady who does animal shelter consulting and she offered to come in,” she said. “We’ve got somebody coming in (today) to teach them how to disinfect things.”