Our first stop in Kentucky was at Leslie County Animal Shelter. Like many municipal shelters, it was located right next to the waste transfer station and the jail. The building is a simple concrete one that houses the staff, medical…
Something magical happened when we visited STAR – Saving the Animals of Rowan in Rowan County, Kentucky, close to the Ohio border. It’s only happened on one other of the 150+ shelter visits we’ve made. (And maybe this won’t seem…
Bracken County is a no-stop-light county in northern Kentucky, not too far from Ohio. The Bracken County Animal Shelter is a simple metal building with 14 kennels and a tiny office/storage area. It may not look like much, but Heather…
Excerpt from Who Will Let the Dogs Out: Stories and Solutions for Shelters and Rescues No matter their economic status, the places where they were saving every healthy, adoptable dog and housing them humanely shared three elements in common: leadership,…
If we had visited the Harrison County Flora Shropshire Animal Shelter in Cynthiana, Kentucky, a year ago, we might have heard a very different story. A change of administration under Judge Executive Jason Marshall and the hiring of co-managers Jessica…
I have a question: Is keeping an animal alive the same as giving them life? At our 28 shelter visits this year, we met dogs who had spent months, even years at the shelter. We met others who had grown…
Our shelters are in crisis. More dogs have died in 2024 than died in 2023, and many more have spent too long in under-resourced shelters. And, critically, too many dogs have been turned away by intake policies and overwhelmed shelters.…
Hart County Animal Shelter has a positive energy, a plan for the future, and a staff with (okay, I’m gonna go for the hokey here) — heart. That was clear from the moment I heard from their key volunteer Devon,…
At Lincoln County Shelter in Stanford, Kentucky, it’s a family affair. In 2020, when the shelter needed to change its story (and find new management), Lanice and her daughter, Brittany, were hired. In 2022, her son Hunter joined their staff.…
The weather couldn’t have been worse for our visit to El Dorado, Arkansas. We were headed there to visit Union County Animal Protection Society (UCAPS) and it was POURING rain. Before heading out to the shelter, we stopped to see…