Herbie Brown Represents the Best of Who WE Are!

Herbie Brown’s story is still unfolding.  A 1979 Airstream Landyacht , Herbie has been recently transformed into FOTAS’ state-of-the-art Rescue Waggin’.  How he got his name, his amazing career change, and what he will be doing, are all long stories, but considering what he will be up to in the next couple of months, well worth highlighting.

For over 25 years, the travel trailer belonged to Bert Davis’ uncle, Herb Brown, who traveled among Airstream enthusiasts as far away as Mexico, and who ultimately lived out his final years as a widower calling his beloved RV home.

“My uncle loved this trailer and he liked to help people,” Bert said, and then he did everything he could to help FOTAS get the project going.  Bert was so generous that we named the trailer after his uncle.

Herbie Brown now sports thank-you notes to his major benefactors on each rear corner.  The first are only initials of anonymous donors who funded the project.  Then he acknowledges Ernie Wolf who assembled the first crew for gutting, and basic electrical work.  There’s Robert McBrayer, who spent a few weeks with

metal patches, silicone, primer, more primer, paint and plywood securing the windows, sealing leaks, covering wheel wells, installing subflooring, priming and painting the interior a brilliant fun yellow.

Ken Simmonds did the most exquisite job of laying vinyl on the floors and up the walls that you’d think royalty would be traveling, not dogs.  Eric Figueroa of Premier Metals created the secure generator housing on the trailer’s fork so the animals could have light, music, and climate-controlled travel, winter or summer, wherever they go.

Don Bush was the brilliant craftsman who designed, constructed, and installed the four pens and their wire mesh doors.  It was no small task to get the wood to accommodate the irregular curve of aluminum interior walls designed like an airplane fuselage. 

Anthony Goehl, a recent transplant to Aiken, primed, painted, and sealed the pens so that animals who travel can find clean, healthy accommodations for every voyage.

Herbie is ever grateful to Charlie at Tyler Tire who was under Herbie in a downpour; to Sherwin Williams for the advice, primer and paint; and to Ron at Signworks who designed the messaging on Herbie’s exterior so that wherever Herbie goes FOTAS’ message will be very clear: “Rescue, Adopt, Spay/Neuter & Love!”

Soon, Herbie will be re-stationed between the C.A.T.S building and the main county shelter waiting to be called into service.  On May 26^th, he will be the star of Friends of the Animal Shelter’s march in Aiken’s Memorial Day Parade, along with volunteers with adoptable county shelter dogs. 

On Saturday, June 16^th, we hope Herbie will be the “Kitten Caboose” at FATZ Café, with Senior Vet Tech Sandy Larsen offering adoptable kitties at FOTAS’ first “Breakfast at FATZ for County Shelter Cats!”

Be proud, Aiken County, we are a community making a difference!  Just follow our latest miracle, Herbie Brown, who reflects the best of who we are!

  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 23rd thru 29th 2012  

Dogs taken in: 75!

Cats taken in: 37

Dogs adopted: 14

Cats adopted: 7

Dogs & Cats euthanized: Way too many!

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week” 

WILLOW – An eager beagle, 4 yrs and 27 lbs. She will entertain and accompany many good walks.  $70

 

GYPSY – Gorgeous gal! A purrfect companion who doesn’t need to be walked! $35

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

 

FOTAS and Aiken County Determine The New Animal Shelter Site

Let’s start with basic terms.  First, “Animal Control” is the jurisdiction’s obligation to protect the public from the nuisance, disease and danger of unwanted, mostly domestic animals.  Statutes regarding Animal Welfare make legal determinations about animal cruelty resulting from neglect or abuse.  Animal Advocacy, by contrast, assumes that animals’ well-being is the collective moral obligation of the community in which they reside.

Once understood, we can see these terms in operation.  Built to house 100 animals over 20 years ago, the current county shelter ‘s primary if not sole purpose was to serve the county’s animal control obligation.  Quickly the demand on the facility rose to over 200 unwanted animals, brought in by officers or surrendered by citizens, who wait 5 days for someone to claim them.  Before FOTAS, over 90% were euthanized, bagged up, and shipped to the landfill.

This 5,000 square foot facility, with no lobby, no quarantine area or infirmary, no surgical facility, no kitchen or break room, no cat area, no

HVAC, serves all 110 square miles of Aiken County, minus the cities of Aiken and North Augusta with their own animal control.  The facility never pretended to address community concerns about animal welfare or animal advocacy, nor can it effectively address the 5,400 unwanted animals that continue to arrive each year.

FOTAS and the County have been working together for nearly two years to determine the best way to provide our Animal Services Department and our community with an adequate animal shelter.  Plans are finally under way as our euthanasia rate balks above 70%.

Last month County Council designated 4.4 acres of county-owned land as the site for a new Aiken County Animal Shelter.  The lovely parcel sits on the southwest corner of May Royal and Wire Road. 

The May Royal parcel was one of four potential sites considered: a shell and 5 acres in the Willow Run Industrial Park for $695k; the current Aiken SPCA for $650k; and, the current county shelter site.

FOTAS contracted a nationally recognized shelter expert to evaluate all of the options for the county.  His assessment concluded that the most cost-effective option to provide an adequate shelter, one that could serve our county population, was to build new on county-owned land.

Last week, a committee of FOTAS and County representatives interviewed four finalists in a search for shelter design experts.   In accordance with the MOU signed last June, FOTAS will pay for the shovel-ready design, and no public funds will be spent until site work begins, if the county moves expeditiously. 

Aiken County is already seeking ways to optimize its contractor services for the shelter project as it advances our new county complex; for instance, there is saleable timber on both sites.

This innovative public-private partnership will set new standards for merging animal control, welfare and advocacy in programs for and by our animal-loving county.  This is our one opportunity to get this right, and if we do, it will serve us all well for decades into the future.  

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”

Yearly Adoptions July 2006 to June 2011

Adoptions	Cats	Dogs	Total
FY07	88	366	454
FY08	95	546	641
FY09	163	467	630
FY10	185	530	715
FY11	142	620	762

“Pets of the Week” Spring Adoption Special ½ Price!

MIA – 3.5 YRS.   

Save this sweetheart! Only $20

ANGEL 1yr. 50 lbs. 

 $35 includes shots, microchip & spay

Pit Bull Rescue Happens One Very Lucky Dog at a Time

We planned to feature our boy “Shady,” Pet-of-the-Week for January 15^th when he had already been in the shelter for a month.  Now the middle of February, the volunteers who regularly work with our county shelter dogs were getting nervous about Shady’s prospects.

Two weeks after featuring Shady as POTW,  June Bug, another Pit-mix, was up.  Both were brought in as strays; both dogs had been passed over again and again; and, both dogs were beloved by every volunteer who worked with them.

Like too many abandoned dogs needing another chance, June Bug and Shady were additionally handicapped by the excessive number of Pit-mixes who find themselves at our sorely inadequate County Shelter.

SHADY

JUNE BUG

 Problems placing Pit Bulls and Pit-mixes extend well beyond our county.  Even our rescue partners, locally and up north, will often stipulate “No Pit Bulls” in their transfer guidelines.  So these marvelous, affectionate, intelligent creatures languish in an over-crowded facility, stressing our

county staff and worrying the FOTAS volunteers silly.

Sometimes a little magic or a few well-placed miracles happen, often when we need them most.  This time, someone met someone who happened to mention something, and a few calls later we had new rescue partner accessible to our transport angel, Mark.  On February 11^th , 19 Aiken County Shelter dogs went north.  One of them was June Bug. 

Ten days later, our new rescue partner forwarded the following message: 

 I wanted to take a minute to thank you and your amazing staff for all that you do.  We have been visiting the Animal League for over 11 years now.  My first adoption took place in March of 2001… You worked with me and matched me with a Boxer/German Shepherd puppy...Three years ago on St. Patrick’s Day, I fell in love immediately with a Plott Hound/Pit Bull named "Aintso."  Again your staff worked with us to ensure he was a perfect fit...and he was.  Just this past Saturday, after a year of looking for another dog to complete our family, we met "June Bug."  It took us no more than 5 minutes to see she was the missing piece we had been searching for…  We can't thank you enough for loving these dogs until they find forever homes like ours.

 Sincerely,

June Bug’s New Family

Last Thursday another 14 dogs went north to the same rescue.  One was Shady.  Perhaps June Bug’s love story paved the way, or maybe it was this heartfelt plea:

“We would be so grateful if you would please consider taking Shady on the transfer this Thursday as well. You have our word that you will love him as much as we do. All our

volunteers have begged me to ask you to please take this dog…so special and so appreciative of any attention that comes his way…”

County dogs have less than 7 chances in 100 of being saved by a transfer up north.  Most of the dogs put down last week were unwanted, sick puppies.  Please adopt shelter dogs and promote spay/neuter.  

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 week Feb. 13th thru 19th 2012

Received: 57 dogs and 12 cats

Adoptions: 6 dogs and 4 cats

Euthanized: 54 dogs and 9 cats

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week” 

PORSHA - 4.5 yrs Husky/Basset gal.  

 Love this treasure but lap your fencing.  She prefers company or will dig. $38.

 

BOOTS  – 1 yr. Male. A purr-fect love. $20