Until a couple months ago, Chris Moses didn't much like going to work at the Fulton County pound. Part of his job involved injecting lethal doses into dogs and cats deemed "unadoptable." He killed a lot of them during his two years there.

"It kind of was a drag just coming in here and knowing that you're putting down animals all the time," Moses said recently.

But he said things have changed since March 20, when the Atlanta Humane Society ended its nearly three decades of management under a contract with the county.

The new, temporary contractor is finding people to adopt the animals or hold them until permanent homes can be found. And Moses said he and other workers are learning how to provide better care.

Moses pointed to a cage containing a mutt with a cast on its right front leg. The dog, which the staff called Scooter, had been hit by a car then treated by a veterinarian. Under the old management, he said, it would have been killed.

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"We're in a position to take action for animals," Moses said. "We can actually treat fleas, everything, broken bones."

In 2001, the last year for which numbers were available, the pound under Atlanta Humane killed 82 percent of 13,102 animals impounded. Atlanta Humane officials claimed the stray or lost animals at the pound were too sick or too vicious to adopt.

The new organization running the pound, the Southern Hope Humane Society, is reporting much different results. Southern Hope told county officials it killed 36 percent of the 807 animals impounded from March 21 through April 27.

Push to find homes|

Southern Hope, a 10-year-old nonprofit group based in Cobb County, achieved the lower kill rate by allowing the public to adopt from the pound, which is on Marietta Boulevard across the street from the county jail. Southern Hope also worked with 29 animal rescue groups -- animal lovers who run foster homes for pets and try to find permanent homes.

Atlanta Humane had relationships with a handful of rescue groups, but some complained the pound wouldn't give them animals.

Atlanta Humane also prohibited adoptions from the pound, preferring to transfer "adoptable" animals to its own nearby facility. Ill or injured animals often were killed rather than rehabilitated.

In just over five weeks, Southern Hope managed to transfer 217 animals to rescue groups and to adopt out 53, for total of 270. That is more than a third of the 737 animals that Atlanta Humane transferred out of the pound in all of 2001.

"The thing is, it was just never true that these animals were not adoptable," said Marc Paulhus, whom Southern Hope hired as its pound director.

Bill Garrett, the executive director of Atlanta Humane, said he hadn't seen Paulhus' figures. "I don't have a response to the veracity of anything he says," Garrett said.

It's unclear whether Southern Hope will be allowed to continue its work.

The group is one of two bidders for the long-term contract to run the pound. Southern Hope got a two-month contract in March, replacing Atlanta Humane.

New contract|

Atlanta Humane had announced in December that it was severing its decades-old contract, after the county said it would rewrite it and invite other bidders. The rewritten contract seeks to reduce the kill rate, which had attracted the attention of animal advocates.

County officials wouldn't reveal the identity of the other bidder. Paulhus said he believes it is the same group that bid and nearly won the first time.

County purchasing and code enforcement officials had recommended that county commissioners award the contract in that first bid to a for-profit company called Synergy Management Services.

Synergy proposed retaining as pound director the same man Atlanta Humane had employed to run the pound. The company appeared to have no other experience with animals. Indeed, it had existed less than a month.

Synergy Management incorporated Feb. 25 and listed a home address that was a Mail Boxes Etc.

Commissioners questioned the recommendation and rejected the bid, offering the temporary contract through the end of this month to Southern Hope.