County board committee dealing with animal control department issues

Thursday, December 4, 2025 at 1:21 PM

By Steve Anderson

The Building and Grounds committee of the Lawrence County Board held a rare special public meeting Wednesday at the Lawrence County Courthouse in Lawrenceville.

The purpose was to hear allegations of negligence and illegal activities regarding the Lawrence County Animal Control Department, the Lawrence County Animal Shelter and animal control officer Maggie Carter. There were seven people who offered testimony before the committee on the matter with some calling for the termination or resignation of Carter. Some spoke in support.

After hearing from the public, the committee voted to enter into executive session with Carter. They met for over an hour in the closed session before emerging. The committee did not take action regarding Carter but did approve a personnel matter. Megan Seitzinger was rehired to the Animal Control Department after having been previously terminated and will return to work next week.

Committee chairman Tom Robinson told GIANT fm that the executive session dealt with a discussion of a plan of action to alleviate the areas of concern with Carter to be implemented in the future. He added that the committee and county board is taking the incident very seriously and will continue to monitor the situation going forward.