We just returned from two weeks of touring shelters and rescues in four states. This tour was different from the dozens we’ve done (nearing 175 shelter visits now) because at almost every stop we heard about the damaging effect of…
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,…
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…
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…
Daniel and Gary at Eufaula Al Animal Control defy the stereotype. Many of the men we meet in shelters, especially ACOs, tend to be gruff, all business, following the rules, and a bit indifferent to the dogs in their care.…
Franklin County Humane Society Planned Pethood & Adoption Center (FCHS) is quite the intentional mouthful, but its wordy name explains it all. Humane care, advocating and offering planned pethood, and adopting out animals. The nonprofit shelter and clinic located about…
You know something is different from the moment you pull onto the campus at Rockingham Harrisonburg SPCA. They hadn’t opened yet to the public, but the parking lot was filling up and the place was bustling with volunteers walking dogs,…
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?