Why are there so many dogs dying in our southern shelters? This is the question that has been posed to me again and again in podcast interviews, on social media, in emails, and quite often, in person. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that question and I don’t necessarily have a concise answer,…
It took some doing, but we finally found the Forrest City Area Humane Society which partners with Forrest City Animal Control to save animals. The blue cement building was a mile down a narrow unmarked road that ran beside the train tracks and eventually petered out into a dirt/sand road before arriving at the shelter…
Every shelter tour is hard, amazing, inspiring, heartbreaking, and exhausting, but I always learn more about the crisis of so many unwanted dogs in our country. This time we made 12 shelter visits in four states, bringing our total shelter visits to 95! Over the next few months, I will share the stories of the…
It’s a pipe dream that every county in every southern state should have a progressive animal shelter that functions as a community resource and adoption center. There are simply too many small counties and too many stretched budgets. Instead, many southern states opt for the dog pound model. They call these facilities ‘shelters,’ but too…
Private animal shelters often are built near public shelters to do the job that the tax-payer funded shelter is not. They literally rescue dogs from the public shelter. Why is more not expected from a government run shelter? Why do citizens pay for two shelters – one with their taxes and the other with their donations (and hearts)? And why, pray tell, do we allow this to go on?
In this Issue: Online Auction, SWD Work weekend, Grant deadlines, Fundraising Ideas, and more! It’s Time for our AUCTION! Our first annual Fall Silent Auction is almost here! The auction will be open on September 6 at 12 pm and will close on September 16 at 8pm. This will be our largest fundraiser for the…
Our visit to Bibb County was proof once again, that you don’t have to live in the south to be saving animals in the south. And also, that one individual can make a real difference. We learned about the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office Animal Services from Linda Taylor. Linda lives in Illinois yet works to…
On her one-hour commute (each way, each day) Melissa, the executive director of the SPCA Of Bradley County – TN has a lot of time to think about ways to improve the situation at the shelter. Her sunny personality, quick wit, and willingness to tackle even the toughest challenge make her the perfect leader for…
“Why do you do this?” I asked Rose, the founder/director/doer-of-pretty-much-everything at Saving Webster Dogs. Rose shrugged, smiled, sighed, and said, “Somebody has to do it.” But, somebody doesn’t have to do it. In fact, nobody else in Webster County, West Virginia is willing to do what Rose does to save these dogs.
This past spring we visited Petersburg Animal Care & Control just outside of Richmond, Virginia. The shelter building is over sixty years old and shows it, but new director and ACO, Jenny, is doing all she can with what she’s got, and that means saving as many dogs as possible. Before Jenny took over in…
