Groundbreaking is Latest County Shelter Milestone

Two speakers, one from County Council and one representing FOTAS, invoked Gandhi’s quote about a people’s moral progress to mark the significance of the groundbreaking ceremony for the new county shelter last Sunday.

It was Gandhi’s belief that how a nation treats its animals reflects its moral progress; it was the speakers’ contention that, with our new county shelter, our Aiken County community’s moral progress has taken a great leap forward.

So last Sunday’s groundbreaking was a huge celebration of a major milestone.

In 2005, over six-thousand animals came into our county shelter and almost all of them died there.  The facility was the county government’s response to a 1990 problem: one hundred animals per month, not thinking that eventually they would have to contend with over one-hundred animals per week.

In fulfilling competing responsibilities to public welfare, no time or attention allowed animal welfare to be considered.  No provisions were made for adequate ventilation, waste management, or disease containment.  No future was considered for the animals or the facility that housed them.

Until 2009, the unclaimed animals that could not be crowded into our current shelter still lived their five days in roofless open pens in the dirt.  While the building’s air and trenches spread disease inside, the ground held the diseases outside.

It wasn’t that members of County Council weren’t aware that something needed to be done.  Kathy Rawls knew.  But the moral outrage can’t come from our elected officials; it must come from their citizens.  It was that moral outrage that gave birth to Friends of the Animal Shelter, known as FOTAS.

FOTAS began in spring of 2009 with a benefit breakfast that raised $2,700.  That summer a concrete pad was roofed over for the dogs in the overflow pens.  A year later, C.A.T.S. (Cats at the Shelter) opened as our county’s new indoor/outdoor adoptable cat colony.

As the FOTAS family grew in numbers, we championed the renewal of the county’s 1-cent sales tax, helping secure a million dollars towards an adequate county shelter. 

FOTAS paid for the county to hear from a nationally recognized shelter expert to determine the scope and best direction for the project.  In 2011, FOTAS committed $100k of private funds for the architectural and engineering plans for a new county animal shelter, then ultimately paid $125,000.

March 3^rd,  ceremonious shovels went into the ground at May Royal and Wire Road, as members of County Council lined up with FOTAS officers, our architect, Cary Perkins and our Chief, Bobby Arthurs, to celebrate the achievement.

Thanks to Assistant County Administrator, Andy Merriman, and an amazing public-private partnership, this project will be fiscally responsible and no-frills; adequate to meet both public and animal needs; and, highly attractive to community involvement. Happy, healthy animals are more adoptable.

FOTAS now needs help raising $400k to furnish the new shelter.  We will insure its future with SNAP, our targeted spay/neuter program, working with the SPCA.  Please contribute anything you can.

Be proud, Aiken County. Progress, even moral progress, is evident.  

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”

February 25^th thru March 3^rd     

Received: 44 dogs and 35 cats

Adopted: 19 dogs and 1 cats

Euthanized:  30 dogs and 17 cats

EVA – 2 yrs. Soft, silky, smart and yours for $70

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!”

 

ALBERT – 18 mos. Lab mix.  Bust into spring with this running buddy!  Only $70 

*All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm test, all shots, worming, and microchip.

Joshua Bear’s Journal Travels from Newtown Teaching Love

My name is Ms. Moores and this is Joshua Bear,” said the note that accompanied the brown teddy bear sporting a basketball uniform on his journey to Newtown, Connecticut, following the horrific shooting, December 14th in that town.  

Thousands of stuffed animals arrived in Newtown from people all across the nation who sought to offer some small comfort to the town’s children.

When FOTAS’ president learned that by Christmas, the town was pleading for donors to stop sending teddy bears, she contacted them and asked for a donation of stuffed animals to bring comfort to Aiken County’s homeless and motherless puppies.  

Newtown’s person responsible for storing the bears agreed to send 100 to 150 teddy bears if FOTAS paid the shipping.  UPS shipped them at a huge discount.  Joshua Bear and his Journal were in that shipment.

For five years, from the fall of 2005 through the summer of 2010, Joshua went home with kindergarteners, children about the same age as the twenty children slaughtered at Sandy Hook. 

“Hi, I’m Joshua Bear!” the message inside the journal cover reads, “…Please write in my journal about my visit…then send me back to school…”  There are fifty-two entries.

“Joshua is filled with many hugs and happy memories,” wrote teacher Moores in her note to Newtown. “He has comforted students when they were sad and taken part in the joy of everyday life.”

Reading through the little stories, what emerges is a mosaic of connection and caring.  The children tell where they took Joshua Bear, how they changed his outfits, and how his presence made them feel – always better.  Their message is about home and family, and how mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, friends, and neighbors make life matter, especially to the very young, new to living at all.

If you translate that to the world of puppies, kittens, dogs and cats, as we do in the FOTAS family, not all that much changes.  Yes, the pups are likely to find joy pulling the stuffing out of their toy and playing tug-o-war with the fabric, but our impulse to provide puppies and kittens with a clean healthy environment; to offer appropriate toys, good food, and clean water; and, to make the warm, happy sounds humans make when in their company, that impulse comes from love.

When the shipment of teddy bears was certain, in the spirit of partnership, FOTAS offered to share them with the Aiken SPCA.  They happily accepted and paid half the freight.  The goodwill just kept flowing outward.

“He is excited to have a new place to call home.  I hope he can comfort you in your time of need,” wrote Ms. Moores, never expecting Joshua to end up in South Carolina, “…My thoughts and prayers are placed inside of him as well.”

We finally break ground for our new shelter on March 3rd, so some prayers are being answered.  We still need your donations and fund-raisers to furnish it.  Prayers include more foster homes and spay/neuter funds.  Let’s make Joshua Bear proud of his new home! 

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”

February 18^th thru 24^th    

Received: 43 dogs and 29 cats

Adopted: 13 dogs and 2 cats

Put down:  35 dogs and 36 cats

CAREN – 4 yrs. This golden-eyed lady still needs a home!  Only $35 

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!” 

  

BOB – 1.5 yrs.  Bull Terrier mix.  He is a loveable sweetheart! Only $70 to be yours    

*All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm test, all shots, worming, and microchip.