by JOYA DISTEFANO
“Hello, I got this number from the sign…”
“My name is… I’m calling about the spaying and
neutering…”
“…I signed up and no one has called me yet…”
“…I signed up and now my cat is in heat…”
“Hello, my name is...I have all these cats coming to
my house! Can someone help me?...”
These kinds of calls come in day after day from
people who need help spaying or neutering their pets, or the community cats
they support. FOTAS has been trying to
meet this demand, and still rally the community behind “The Year of the Shelter
2013” and the need for donations to “Fit, Furnish and Finish” our new County
Shelter. Both are essential needs.
Aiken County is building a new Animal Shelter, due
to open this winter. It will be a happy
healthy place, appropriate to the current demands on County Animal
Services. But if we do not continue to
build on spay/neuter assistance programs, the new shelter can easily
deteriorate into a bigger version of the old overcrowding problem and the
stress, disease and death that accompany it.
In the spring of 2012, FOTAS entered a walk
competition and fundraiser in Columbia and won.
The result was not just nearly 100 free spay neuters for Wagener pets,
but the beginning of a major FOTAS initiative called “SNAP,” for Spay/Neuter
Assistance Program.
When the money in Columbia ran out, the old Aiken
SPCA, now the Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, stepped in and provided the
remaining surgeries on the list with a $15 co-pay. They understood that FOTAS was currently
committed to raising funds for the new shelter.
This was the beginning of a win-win partnership that will be at the
heart of the success of both new facilities for the foreseeable future.
FOTAS SNAP is currently working with Aiken County
Animal Control, and strategically located towns, to provide targeted
spay/neuter assistance. Already the
mayors of Wagener, Burnettown and Windsor are on board, and we look forward to
others joining up. The program offers eligible
pet owners a place to enroll, transportation to and from the Albrecht Center’s
new high-capacity spay/neuter clinic from targeted sites, and the surgery,
rabies vaccine and a micro chip, all for a $20 co-pay.
Here’s where the $10,500 comes in. The figure represents the average cost to
spay and neuter 50 dogs and 50 cats at the Albrecht Center’s high-capacity
clinic. Here’s the grand plan. Next Saturday, September 21st the
SPCA Albrecht Center is hosting a major fundraiser that offers another
opportunity for FOTAS SNAP to compete for funds. Our goal is $10,500!
The Albrecht Center has agreed to apply every dollar
contributed to FOTAS SNAP. We need your
help to reach our $10,500 goal. Every $5, $10, $25 can get us there, if we all
chip in.
Contribute on line to: http://www.crowdrise.com/fotassnap OR
Send a check (must arrive by 9/21 to count) to FOTAS
SNAP at P.O. Box 2207 Aiken 29802.
Or, if you are computer-savvy, form your team (UNDER
FOTAS, PLEASE) and be a star!
A retired organizational problem-solver and radical
educator, Joya Jiménez DiStefano is an artist, Servant Leader, and co-founder
of FOTAS, Inc.
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”
Public Animal Control Numbers
|
Aiken City & Aiken County
FY’13
|
City of
Aiken
|
Aiken
County
|
|
|
Dogs
|
Cats
|
Animals
|
|
|
Impounded
|
347
|
236
|
4,794
|
|
RTO*
|
137
|
4
|
219
|
|
Transferred/ Adopted
|
89
|
58
|
783/
798
|
|
Euthanized
|
93
|
175
|
3,415
|
*returned
to owner
 |
| LITTLE BIT - 7yrs. Male beauty. Elegant is just the beginning with this guy! Only $35. |
 |
|
PEPPER – Hound/Lab female 1yr. 44lbs. Eager, affectionate, intelligent! Only $70
|
*All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm
test, all shots, worming, and microchip.
Are these stats FY 2013 thru August? Or September?
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