Exciting and Inviting Aiken County Animal Shelter Planned!

“Exciting and inviting,” is how the architect envisions the new Aiken County Animal Shelter, “It should meet the needs of today and be flexible enough to evolve over time.” 

Plans are finally officially underway!  Aiken County and FOTAS have selected the architectural firm McMillan, Pazdan & Smith to design our new County Animal Shelter.  The county signed the contract last week.

Already working with County Council on the new county complex, MPS Architects have also designed other county shelters in South Carolina and a private shelter in Greenville, and all of the end-users are very pleased with their facilities.

Last Tuesday, shelter staff and FOTAS’ president met with the architects and spent a few hours talking about the work, touring the current shelter, and defining realistic demands that will be placed on a new one.

They talked about space needs while standing in the cramped room that serves as the “office.”  From here, nine employees serve the public who may be dropping off strays, or unfortunate pets; searching for lost animals or adopting new

ones; bringing and retrieving animals for spay/neuter; or picking up foster care litters. They also answer calls, maintain records, hold meetings and eat. 

The tour proceeded through the “adoption section” where of the 17 cages only six have outdoor access.  In the back of the facility, the few cages that have guillotine doors to the outside are closed off to make two pens out of one because of overcrowding. 

The architects noted that there is no way to segregate healthy animals from the sick or vicious ones.  The cats in 5-day “quarantine” live in cages in one closet while surgeries are performed in another one.  Euthanasia takes place in the same open space that laundry is done and that holds the “post-operative” patients in cage banks.  There are no storage closets for bedding, food, or supplies.  There is no break room.  There is no hot water where the food dishes are “cleaned.”

Public demand has determined that a minimum of 35 adoption kennels, 35 quarantine and 15 isolation kennels are needed.

“But only if our programs continue,” says Chief Enforcement Officer, Bobby Arthurs, “Or we’ll be back where we are now.  We need to hammer down on spay/neuter and keep our transfers, foster homes and volunteers going.  We can’t slow down.”

Architect Cary Perkins is charged with ideas for the project.  She envisions a design that will be flexible to meet the needs for today and still evolve over time.  “We want it to be something the community will rally around and fall in love with.”  And it doesn’t have to be extravagant for that to happen. 

Cary believes it is always about the people, and she thinks our Aiken County team is the perfect group to work with: collaborative, dedicated, enthusiastic, and deeply committed.

“Clearly the staff is very good at what they do,” she says, “Because it is amazing the job they do in that space.”

Please support or join FOTAS in this remarkable journey.
  FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org  

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

For April 16th thru 22nd, 2012 

Received: 50 dogs and 42 cats

Adoptions:  12 dogs and 14 Cats!

Euthanized:  39 dogs and 35 cats

Aiken County Animal Shelter Pets of the Week

Adoption fees cover shots, worming, heartworm test, microchip and spay or neuter!

ISABELLA – 1 yr old Staffordshire Bull Terrier.   

As sweet as she can be.   $70 and this baby is yours!

BRISTOL –This guy is too sweet to stay any longer.   

4 yrs, a perfect darling is now $20!

One Citizen, One Program, and a Step Forward for Spay/Neuter

If you cringe at “By the Numbers,” or don’t even look, 70 dogs were euthanized week-before-last at the County Shelter.  In one day, thirty-five homeless dogs came in.  The staff is scrambling to find foster homes while bursting with unwanted mama cats with kittens.  The SPCA received a transfer of one cat with a litter of ten! 

When intake numbers explode, with the obligation to receive them all, not nearly enough space, and the requirement to keep strays for five days, too many potentially lovely pets have to die.  We can’t adopt out, transfer, or house indefinitely, so many animals. Not even a new shelter can fix that.

If Aiken County Animal Services were to join the top echelon of community shelters around the country that don’t euthanize adoptable pets, it will be due to aggressive spay/ neuter programs, essential components of an appropriate animal shelter.  There is no other way to bring the intake numbers down to a level where animals that come in stand a reasonable chance of finding a good home.

Last year the veterinary community of Aiken County rose to the occasion with their Stomp Out Strays Program, contributing their services for spay/neuter to pet owners needing financial assistance.  The demand soon overtook their capacity.

Aiken County dedicates $30,000 dollars each fiscal year to subsidize spay/neuter with the County Spay/Neuter Voucher Program.  The shelter makes the vouchers available at the first of each month, and there are never enough.

Even with the spay/neuter assistance programs funded by Aiken County and private organizations such as SPCA, too many pet owners, especially those in rural areas, do not know about, how to qualify for, or cannot even pay the minimal fees necessary to take advantage of the assistance. 

Then along came Carol, a woman who cared enough about this problem to try and address it, and who backed up her commitment with personal funds to get a program started.  She called her initiative SNAP: Spay Neuter Assistance Program.  Since January, SNAP inaugurated collaboration between FOTAS, the County Shelter, and the Aiken SPCA, who administer the funds.  The SPCA provides its own vouchers to the county shelter, which added its own innovation: most of the SNAP vouchers are handled directly by the county officers in the field.

Animal control officers have direct contact with the neediest households to benefit from spay/neuter financial assistance, especially those with multiple animals.  Until SNAP, the officers could only refer them to one of the existing programs. 

Chief Enforcement Officer Bobby Arthurs recommended providing the SNAP vouchers to his officers so they could give them directly where needed.  

Since January, 75 vouchers have been distributed.  Of those, 24 surgeries have been performed at SPCA and 33 more surgeries are scheduled.

Carol cared enough to start SNAP.  We need your help to keep it going.  As of this summer the SPCA will be able to do 1000 surgeries a month.   Imagine the possibility!  If this is your issue, send FOTAS a check with “SNAP” in the “For” line, or go to the FOTAS website under “Donate.”

 FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

For April 9 thru 15, 2012 

Received: 58 dogs and 31 cats

Adoptions:  13 dogs and 3 cats

Euthanized:  70 dogs and 21 cats

Aiken County Animal Shelter Pets of the Week

Adoption fees cover shots, worming, heartworm test, microchip and spay or neuter!

CODY – 1 yr/60 lb Boxer mix.  This guy is a darling! $70 is a steal of a DEAL!

JINX – 3yr gorgeous male kitty.  A perfect companion for any home.  $35!

Look what a Community that Cares can Do!

Aiken County Animal Control Services has 4 animal control officers, 2 veterinary technicians, 1 dispatcher, 1 custodian and 1 chief enforcement officer.  These 9 employees are responsible for protecting the public from the hazards or nuisance posed by animals at large.  Animal control staff has an additional obligation to protect domestic animals from abuse and neglect. 

Aiken County is approximately 110 square miles, much of it rural.  Aiken County Animal Shelter is 5,000 square feet, not nearly half the size needed to support all the living things it must house in the execution of its mission; not the staff, or the volunteers, the public or the four-legged residents.  And Aiken County Animal Control is obligated to take every single unwanted dog or cat that comes through its door and keep them, hopefully healthy, for at least 5 days.

Four years ago, before Friends of the Animal Shelter (FOTAS) organized, the County Shelter euthanasia rate was above 90%.  For the first quarter of 2012, the average euthanasia rate is 59%!  Yes, it will explode in a couple of months when breeding season kicks in for all the unspayed and unneutered cats and dogs, and when some people decide that it is easier to surrender their dog to the shelter so they can go on vacation than to make arrangements for its care.  Shelter staff and volunteers find it astounding and heartbreaking how often this occurs.  But for now, we can celebrate a huge victory, especially for all the incredible pets in good loving homes who would not be there without people who decided to get involved.

Where do are these people come from?  The simple answer is everywhere.  Take the woman who saved up one hundred one-dollar bills.  The first time she achieved $100, she left it as credit at Aiken Saddlery and the shelter got a bunch of new leashes and collars.  Just recently the anonymous benefactor hit the mark again and donated 100 dollar bills neatly wrapped in an envelope. 

Then there are the children.  Our County Administrator’s granddaughter, Hailey, wants to spend every free moment volunteering at the shelter, and when she has a birthday, her gifts are donations for the dogs and cats.  Our Editor for the Aiken Standard’s son, Parker, and the Daniel’s kids, too, have had “Giving Parties” on behalf of the animals at the County Shelter.  These kids are still in elementary school.  It’s exciting to think of the kind of citizens they will become.

Retirees and local businesses have come forward as sponsors for FOTAS events, and as contributors to many of our projects: the cat colony, Cats at the Shelter ( AKA “C. A.T.S.” ), the overflow pens, the big dog play yard and shade hut, the vetting of design specialists for a new shelter, and most recently, the conversion of “Herbie Brown,” from a ’79 Airstream Landyacht to FOTAS’ new Dog Rescue Waggin’.

 

Aiken County, keep it up and one day we will never have to euthanize an adoptable pet!

FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

For the month of March 2012

Received: 222 dogs and 111 cats

Adoptions:  59 dogs and 24 cats

Transfers:  56 dogs

Euthanized:  110 dogs and 89 cats

Aiken County Animal Shelter Pets of the Week

BUDDY – 1.5 yr chocolate lab mix.  

 Silky and delightful to play with. $70 is a DEAL!

PRETTY – Amazing markings and a sweet disposition, all her purrs can be yours for only $35

 

Help Us Win Free Spay/Neuter at Bark to the Park!

There are so many wonderful ways to do A Very Good Thing, but you only have six days left to pick one.  

Friends of the Animal Shelter-Aiken (FOTAS) was founded to help our Aiken County Animal Shelter become a community-centered, community supported facility with programs in which we could all take pride.  We had no idea what a huge project this initiative would become.  With the county, FOTAS is finally stewarding the building of a new shelter.  With our rescue partners and dedicated volunteers, we are expanding adoptions and transfers of our homeless pets.

 

Now, through Pawmetto Lifeline’s Bark to the Park on Saturday, TEAM FOTAS Aiken County can make a huge contribution to the County Spay/Neuter Voucher Program and help us promote  spay/neuter in the most hard to reach areas of the county.

We are counting on your support to achieve one of the top five fundraising spots for area rescues for this event.  There are several ways to help, but whichever one you choose, be certain to note that you are supporting TEAM FOTAS Aiken County:
 

Go to the FOTAS website or to this link: www.supportprojectpet.com/goto/FOTAS 

From there you have the option to:

1.     Join the team ($25/$15 under 12)

2.     Support an individual walker (any amount)

3.     Donate to the team or an individual walker for any amount.

You may write us a check and note that it is for Bark to the Park and we will submit it in your name.  It is tax deductible. If you join the team you can be a “virtual walker” or join us at Finlay Park in Columbia. Just be sure that you make it very clear that you are supporting FOTAS at Bark to the Park.  We want every dollar to count.

Herby Brown, our “new” Dog Rescue Waggin’, will be making his debut at the FOTAS booth.  A 1979 converted Airstream trailer, he has been an amazing collaborative project in the making.  We will have our county dogs available for adoption sporting their new “Adopt Me” vests.

We hope you will come out with your family and your dogs.  The walk and the festival are a blast for dog lovers.  It is barely an hour away.  Directions are available on line or contact FOTAS for more information.

If you do plan to attend, be sure to tell them when you register that you are supporting Team FOTAS Aiken County!  If you are donating, supporting a walker or participating as a virtual walker, be sure to do it as a supporter of Team FOTAS!

Finally, you can help Equine Rescue of Aiken by attending their spectacular spring fundraiser, “Buck the Film,” on Friday, April 13.  There will be a matinee and an evening showing which is accompanied by a party and silent auction. Tickets and information are available on line at  www.aikenequinerescue.com

Have a very good time doing a very good thing: Support Team FOTAS at Bark to the Park and Equine Rescue at Buck the Film.  Happy Easter!  

FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

P.S. Come to the Bark to the Park Festival on Sat. APril 14th from 11 to 3 pm $10 for adults, $5 for children 5-12 yrs. Place FOTAS on your entrance waiver to show support for the Aiken County Animal Shelter and help us win free spay and neuter vouchers for Aiken County Animals.

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

For the Week of March 26th thru April 1st 2012

Received: 36 dogs and 26 cats

Adoptions:  15 dogs and 9 cats

Euthanized:  45 dogs and 15 cats

Aiken County Animal Shelter Pets of the Week

TRIXIE – 1+ yr. Gets on great with everyone 

and loves to retrieve a ball!

 

ZENA – 3 yrs.  A sweet little gal who loves her window ledge in the sunlight