We Can’t Save Them All (Or Can We)
We can’t save them all. That’s what I’m telling myself as my heart is crushed knowing a dog I so wanted to save is being euthanized today. I’m getting a tiny taste of what so many shelter directors and ACOs…
animal shelter
Arkansas: You Can Do Better
As we traversed Arkansas on our shelter tour last April, I grew more and more frustrated (read: ANGRY) with the state by the day. I know anger doesn’t help, so I focused on the amazing people we met, including Corinna…
Brighter Days for Dogs in Grenada Mississippi
We spotted three stray dogs on our drive from our hotel in Alabama to Grenada Animal Shelter in Mississippi. We’d seen the challenges in the shelters we visited, but it was further evidence that times are tough for unwanted dogs…
Leadership Saves Lives: Marion County Steps Up
Breanna has been in charge of Marion County SC Animal Shelter for only a month, but it’s clear she’s found her calling. She’s been involved with the shelter for four years, working her way from volunteer to part-time kennel tech…
A Bright Future for Butler County Animal Shelter
Ruby has been the director of Butler County Ky. Animal Shelter for five years. As a former vet tech, she brings a lot of critical skills and animal knowledge to the job, but what she really brings is some serious…
What We Learned Touring Twelve Shelters
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…
A Tale of Two Shelters
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?
The Shelter Belongs to the Community at Fitzgerald, Georgia
Shelter in Focus: Fitzgerald-Ben Hill County Humane Society “This place belongs to the community; everything in here, including the animals, belongs to the community,” Nancy told us when we arrived at the Fitzgerald-Ben Hill County Humane Society. Nancy Chambliss is…
A Small Shelter on the Brink of Bigger Things
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…
T-Bone Was Known
Our last stop on our January shelter tour was a tiny animal control facility beside the wastewater treatment plant in Live Oak, Florida. Mary, the sole ACO for Live Oak city shelter, was in the yard with a dog whose…