GWINNETT COUNTY, Georgia (Gwinnett Daily Post) A program the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office has offered for a decade to help rescue dogs feel a sense of love while also teaching responsibility to jail inmates hit a milestone over the weekend.
The Jail Dogs reached its 1,000th dog adoption amid a handful of adoptions from the program that occurred on Saturday. Officially, the total number of dogs adopted through the program has hit 1,001 as of Monday, according to Deputy Cody Walker, who has overseen the program for the last three years.
The milestone dog was Timber, a brindle colored terrier mix.
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Jail Dog Roxy dons a Christmas sweater during her weekly training as a part of Operation Second Chance, or the Jail Dogs program.
A group of dogs of various breeds and sizes are participating in a weekly training exercise at the Gwinnett County Detention Center. They follow basic commands like “sit” and “speak” and occasionally pull on the leash held by their handler, who is also an inmate at the jail.
Based on the happy tail-wagging and eagerness to train, it is hard to believe that the same group of dogs were each abandoned or neglected at some point, and narrowly escaped euthanasia.