Photograph by Adobe Stock
It’s been three years since the last serious dog bite. Jessica Lawton had recently started her job as a field service officer with Fulton County Animal Services, when one day, another officer was bit by a rottweiler while delivering paperwork to a house from which the same dog had escaped earlier in the week. The officer had no serious injuries, but she never came back to work.
“On every call, I mentally prepare for a bite because that could be the one, you know,” Lawton says. It’s a rainy April morning, and Lawton, already in her truck for the day, has just received a notification of a loose animal. Lawton reads a description of the call: A large rottweiler with a history of aggressive behavior tried to attack the caller on their front porch in Hammond Park. The call is labeled “Vicious,” automatically marking it as high priority.
Lawton speeds toward Southwest Atlanta. High-priority dispatches have a 45-minute response time, but she usually tries to complete these calls in 30. After eight years as a veterinary technician, Lawton wanted to do more, especially when she began to see more animal cruelty cases during the pandemic. In 2022, she became an officer with Fulton County Animal Services. “I found what I want to do with the rest of my life,” Lawton says. “I’m able to stand up for animals that can’t stand up for themselves and hold people accountable.”
The job is part law enforcement, part animal caretaker. Lawton responds to calls for the stray, sick, and injured; cases of abandonment, pet hoarding, and cruelty; and instances of distressed, trapped, or vicious animals. Dogs, for obvious reasons, make up about 80 percent of calls, but no two days are the same. In a recent week, Lawton caught a peacock terrorizing a cul-de-sac in South Fulton, chased a surprisingly fast baby lamb in Jonesboro (still on the lam as of press time), and rescued a pet pig abandoned by squatters in a Midtown apartment.
Since 2013, Fulton County Animal Services has been managed by LifeLine Animal Project, which oversees its animal rescue teams and operates its shelter. Because of ever-strained capacity, the county is still forced to euthanize some animals it can’t get adopted. But LifeLine has increased Fulton County’s life-saving rate—pets who find a home—from 39 percent to 89 percent as of last year. Resources are still limited, however: On this particular morning, 399 dogs are in the county’s shelter, which has a maximum capacity goal of 375.
Barring outright felonies, the animal services program aims to keep animals with their owners and out of the shelter. Lawton and her team offer educational materials to owners who may be struggling with an unruly pet, and where needed, they provide free supplies such as leashes, food, and dog houses. “It’s much more important to teach and provide than to just get people in trouble,” Lawton says. “We want pets to have a loving home.”
Twenty minutes after receiving the call, Lawton arrives at the reported address. She flips on the truck’s emergency lights and slowly crawls around the block. Using the call description, she pieces together which house the dog must have come from: Indeed, there’s an open gate to the front yard.
There’s no rottweiler in sight, but after turning onto a side street, Lawton spots a large brown pit bull in a front yard. (Callers often misidentify breeds, just as they tend to describe all large dogs as vicious.) The dog stares at the truck. “I swear they always know it’s us,” Lawton says. She rolls down the window. “Come on, little man,” she calls to him in the baby-talk voice humans have always used with dogs. “Let’s go home.”
Still talking through the window, Lawton slowly drives back to the house, the pit bull following cautiously behind. She hops out in the driveway, wielding her catch pole and a leash. The pit bull crouches, a sign of distrust. But Lawton keeps baby-talking “Little Man,” showing him the leash while she moves into the front yard. Eventually, the dog’s guard comes down; he trots up to Lawton, who pets him behind the ears.
She knocks on the front door, but no one responds. She checks Fulton County’s pet registry to see if the home has a number listed for the pit bull’s owners, but nothing comes up. With no other options, she leaves a printed form on the door notifying the owners that their dog is at Fulton County Animal Services waiting for pickup.
Then she leads Little Man back to the truck. Tail wagging, he jumps right in.
What to do if you find a stray dog:
Call your local county animal services.
The best thing you can do is report any stray you see. Animal services have different response times to every situation, but they strive to find any animal you report.
Leash it and bring it in.
If you see a friendly stray dog and you’re comfortable approaching it, see if you can bring it to the shelter. LifeLine Animal Project has open intake shelters in Fulton and DeKalb County that will take every dog that comes through the door.
Stay with the dog if it’s injured or sick.
Animal services treat these dogs as priority calls. Stick with the dog to help the field officer locate it.
This article appears in our June 2025 issue.
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