The Jones County Animal Shelter director agreed on Friday to accept a pardon offered by national organization Paws for Hope and Faith to not kill animals for seven days.

Byron couple and founders of the organization, Shane and Janet Smith, visited the shelter last week after local citizens and rescues groups asked them to help the small facility.

"We offered them our pardon and then Friday morning I got the call from a county administrator that they accepted it,” Smith said. "It's big because it's a small shelter. They don't get a lot of exposure and this opens them up to the whole nation."

A nation of rescue groups that follow Smith's Hope Facebook page and help pull animals from shelters around the country. On that same page, Smith said the shelter is a high kill facility but some Middle Georgia rescue groups said it's not because director Jennifer Giddens wants to euthanize the cats and dogs.

"It's very well-run, the director will work with anybody that she can but it's very small therefore the intake far out ways the ones that are adopted or pulled by rescues," Macon Purrs N Paws founder, Anne Brennaman said.

She has been pulling from the shelter the last three years. Brennaman said the biggest problem the shelter faces is public awareness and people knowing about the services offered.

"A lot of people surprisingly don't realize that you can go and adopt from the shelter,” she said. “They don't realize the numbers, the problems."

WGXA wasn’t allowed to film inside the shelter Saturday, but were told there are currently 11 adoptable dogs and zero cats. However, that number may quickly change as more animals are expected to be on the list in a few days. In the meantime, Smith is working on his one goal.

"To get them all out, zero left behind," he said.

Smith will be signing the pardon on Monday in Jones County. A new website for the shelter has been created and Smith said animals on the website are starting to receive hits from people around the country.