Sunday, September 26, 2010

Animal Fosters Give Shelter Pets a Fighting Chance

Submitted article FOTAS foster volunteers give their time freely

What kind of person can bring a litter of puppies, often with the nursing momma, into their home and then six to 12 weeks later surrender them back to the shelter?

The Aiken County Animal Shelter depends on these people to save the lucky few out of hundreds of puppies that come through its door in any given year. Obligated to take every unwanted dog and cat in Aiken County, no matter the condition, the shelter cannot assure a healthy environment for unvaccinated pups. If any are to have a chance, they need to be fostered. And that's what FOTAS volunteers Pam, Birgit and Marcia do; they foster puppies and, amazingly, they do it over and over again.

Pam saw an ad in the paper seven years ago: "Mollie's Militia needs your help now."
"Hey, I'd like to do this," was her response. And so it began with two puppies. Then three, and at one point she had 30 dogs she was fostering, 10 of which were pups. She's fostered and placed over 600 dogs.

She'd go out every single Saturday, sometimes with signs that read, "Our time is up. Please save us." Pam's voice fills with passion as she describes her "Carolina Ditch Dogs," like they are a rare breed. She's had to replace her carpet from making sure her pups are house-trained. Her dedication is breathtaking.

"It's mutt city for me," she declares with pride.

Birgit, too, got started with Mollie's Militia almost 11 years ago when she adopted a puppy. Then she got a little fence, and told herself, "Hey, I can do this."

She got some more puppies to foster and kept another one. Then she was fostering everything: abuse cases, mental cases, hard-to-place cases and mothers with litters; not all of them would make it. Eventually, she ended up with eight dogs of her own and was feeling a little burned out; that is, until she heard about FOTAS and the Aiken County Animal Shelter's volunteer program.

Birgit and Pam, friends and partners in the dog rescue business for years, claim a long held soft spot in their hearts for the Aiken County Animal Shelter; but not Marcia.

One bad experience and Marcia spent 11 years telling people to stay away from the county shelter. Then she, too, heard about the need for help, accompanied by the promise, "If you foster the puppies, as long as they are healthy, we won't put them down."

Marcia took two 6-week-old pups for six weeks; then a mother and two puppies; then an escape artist mom with seven puppies.

"They have a chance in life because I got them ready," said Marcia, who now calls it "tithing her time."

"It's almost like an addiction," whispers Birgit like a prayer, "because it just makes you feel so good."

And Pam's husband warned her, "If you adopt one, you have to quit." So she gives them up, each of the pups she has lovingly raised, because it is like a calling, and she can't quit.

FOTAS volunteers work with the Aiken County Animal Shelter, 411 Wire Road. For more information, e-mail info@fotasaiken.org or visit www.fotasaiken.org.


Sunday, September 19, 2010

Young Volunteers Help Pets Find Forever Homes Online

From The Aiken Standard 
Submitted article

It all began in July of 2009, when Seth, then 10, was perusing the Help Wanted section of the Classifieds.

"I want to do this," he declares unequivocally. The Aiken County Animal Shelter was looking for volunteers.

"I'd seen the ads," mom, Susan admits, "But I knew enough to stay away. You know you want to take them all home." But Seth really wanted to volunteer, and his older brother, Alex, wanted to volunteer. So one day they went to the Aiken County Animal Shelter where they walked dogs, played with dogs and discovered that whoever had been trying to help the county shelter keep a presence on Petfinder.com was no longer there.Petfinder is a national website. "The virtual home of 348,867 adoptable pets from 13,557 adoption groups," declares its homepage.

The Aiken County Animal Shelter is one of those groups. To use the service, organizations have to have photos and profiles for each of the adoptable animals it wants to list. That's where Susan and her boys entered the picture.

"My husband had just bought me a digital camera, and I love playing on the computer," Susan explained as if it were meant to be.

In the beginning, they were at the shelter just about every day. "It kind of became an obsession," she recalls. "Seth would beeline it for the cats, and Alex would help me with the dogs. We try to get three good shots: one standing, one sitting and one of their face." She tries to give each homeless animal the best possible chance on virtual display.

To access Petfinder on the Internet and the dog or cat options at the Aiken County Animal Shelter, visit www.petfinder.com and fill in the information about city, state and shelter; or visit www.fotasaiken.org and click on "adopt me" to view county pets hoping for a forever home. More than likely, the helping hands in the photos of the animals are either those of Alex or Seth.

Seth is the cat man. On the three or four days a week he and his mom are at the shelter, you can find him in C.A.T.S., the new cat shelter. "Seth loves the cat house," Susan said. Since he's been volunteering, he's already brought home one kitten, Zoe, a cat whose head he swears changes shape depending on her mood. "Sometimes it's round, and sometimes it's kinda pointy," he said, like he is describing something quite special.

Alex, now a junior at Aiken High, runs cross-country, so no surprise that his pick from the shelter was a high-energy chocolate Lab named Coco who just might one day be a running buddy. Alex's schedule this year limits him to Saturdays at the shelter. And he is there every Saturday, helping his photographer mom get just the right shot for each lucky dog or cat whose profile, composed with loving care, will be posted on Petfinder.com.

FOTAS Volunteers work with the Aiken County Animal Shelter, 411 Wire Road. For more information, e-mail info@fotasaiken.org or visit www.fotasaiken.org.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Sandy Larsen Gives the Last Kiss

From The Aiken Standard

My whole life I have loved all animals.

I never had any fear of them.

I remember when I was 5, my dad and I got out of the car on Park Avenue as an older black lady came down the street with two red chows on leashes.

I ran up to the dogs and threw my arms around them, and they licked me in the face. The lady was horrified, thinking her dogs wouldn't tolerate children, or strangers.

But those dogs were OK with me.

I have always had my own dogs and cats, and I've worked with animals for 28 years.

There is no such thing as an ugly dog or cat. Every animal is unique and, just like people; it's their personality that makes them beautiful.

Before I worked at my first shelter, I thought like everyone else about a kill shelter.

I couldn't imagine putting a perfectly healthy animal to death.

In a week, I changed my whole opinion.

I was blown away by the number of unwanted animals there were in Aiken County.

Small wonder so many had to be euthanized.

Citizens criticize the shelters for destroying animals, but the shelters are not to blame; it is the people who do not spay or neuter their pets.

Some call us, who work at the shelter, cold-hearted killers.

We are not; we are the ones who have to do the dirty work.

I never get out of bed on the mornings the truck comes and say, "Oh boy, today is the day we get to euthanize!"

I wake up on those mornings sick to my stomach and pray to make it through it. We see these babies every day, and become attached to so many.

They wag their tails at you. They even kiss you as you are taking their lives.

¬ My mother still can't believe that I am at a shelter euthanizing animals.

So many people say they can't imagine how we do what we do.

The truth is that to euthanize animals, you have to be full of compassion and love them.

I am the last person that animal is going to see.

Even if the animal is fighting the leash, I take the leash off, talk softly and¬ give it lots of love.

There is no way to save them all when we are taking in 400 to 600 animals a month. ¬

¬ So, you can imagine how the opportunity to take our adoptable dogs on Channel 12 Monday mornings thrilled me.

Lynnsey Gardner and Tim Strong have been so supportive.

In over a year and a half, I have never missed a Monday.

I also take our animals on¬ Channel 6 with Mary Morrison and Anne Sawyer the first Wednesday of every month.

And right here, we feature a couple of very special young dogs, full brothers, who are exceptionally well-mannered and will bring great joy and companionship to any home.

Come on out. Find love at the Aiken County Animal Shelter.

FOTAS volunteers work with the Aiken County Animal Shelter, 411 Wire Road. For more information, e-mail info@fotasaiken.org or visit www.fotasaiken.org.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Shelter Chief Looks to Make a Difference, Too

Submitted article


The most telling image of Bobby Arthurs, the chief enforcement officer at the Aiken County Animal Shelter, is of this big man in his gray uniform with a Chihuahua puppy cupped in his hands, held six feet in the air, up to his smiling face.

He's partial to Chihuahuas, a fact that might surprise some people in a man his size.

Arthurs has been a public servant his entire working life, beginning as a maintenance man for the South Carolina Department of Parks and Recreation in 1990.

A couple of years later, he was a park ranger at Aiken State Natural Area.
"I loved working there," he said, "The good part is you are always working with the public, but it was a different interaction, renting canoes and making campsite reservations."

In the fall of 2001, with a new commission as a constable, he came to the county as an animal control officer.

"I felt like I could do it, like I could make a difference in what the job entails ... helping animals."

At first, he felt like he had jumped the fence in his dealings with the public, and now he had to be the bad guy.

"But I soon learned I am not the bad guy; my job is to enforce the rules," he said.

Arthurs was asked in his interview how he felt about euthanizing animals.

"I said I could do it," he recalled, "And I felt like I gave an honest answer, too. But after I got here - and I was only witnessing it - it knocked the air out of me like someone kicked me in the gut."

He'd made a terrible mistake was his first thought, but then he went to training and learned.

"What kind of life can we give them here?" he said. "But, it's really hard to see the amount of animals coming through the door. This shelter was built to be maxed out at 100 dogs. That was 1990. Now, it's 2010, and sometimes we're holding 150 to 200 dogs and 40 to 50 cats. The overflow area - that's what we call it, overflow - is busting at the seams."

As chief the last three years, Arthurs has worked hard to make improvements.

The "Overflow Area" now sits atop a sealed cement slab that drains and can be disinfected to contain the spread of disease. A shed roof for shade was added last fall, and big fans move the air. Even so, he said, "These animals will be held for five days, and then we have to make a decision."

In late spring, when the shelter is overrun with newborn puppies and his vet tech's heart is breaking, the shelter puts out an appeal for foster homes.

"I want to foster," he said, "But I don't know if we'll get to do that again right now, because the last three we fostered, we adopted two."

FOTAS volunteers work with the Aiken County Animal Shelter, 411 Wire Road. For more information, e-mail info@fotasaiken.org or visit www.fotasaiken.org.