FOTAS Partners with SPCA to Make Possibility Reality for County Shelter

All that exceeds FOTAS’ accomplishments are our possibilities!  Here are a number of recent reasons for our optimism.

Yesterday, FOTAS held its second Woofstock Festival of Mutts and Music.  With the weather forecast, sponsor/vendor/exhibitor support, and community interest as predictors of success, it must have been spectacular.  All of the proceeds from the event will be invested in our new shelter.

Last month, accompanied by some very special adoptable dogs, FOTAS engaged the community on the needs of our County Shelter at St. Mary’s Chocolate Festival and Fall Steeplechase.  More than 5,000 unwanted, mostly adoptable, dogs and cats a year are still coming into a grossly inadequate facility.

Since January FOTAS has transferred 431 dogs to no-kill shelters up north. They move through an unbroken chain of relationships from our inadequate shelter to volunteer foster homes, to transfer partners, to the love of responsible, well-vetted homes. 

Combined with our county adoptions, we are saving twelve- to fifteen hundred pets a year, and still seven out of ten animals coming into the county shelter die there. 

Naturally, we cannot build, adopt or transfer our way out of this heart-breaking reality.  The real solution to the horrific euthanasia rate of impounded animals is to address the problem at its source: the elimination of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens through spay/neuter and responsible pet ownership.

Beginning last spring, through an opportunity offered by Pawmetto Lifeline in Columbia, FOTAS volunteers moved deliberately and actively into facilitating low-cost, targeted spay/neuter services through the new Spay/Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP). 

Wagener area citizen’s response to the program was huge and saw that more than 80 cats and dogs were fixed before funds were exhausted in Columbia.  That is when Aiken SPCA stepped up to the plate and became the critical partner for FOTAS SNAP in Wagener, picking up the surgeries for an additional 50 to 60 animals.

FOTAS and Wagener owe a huge debt of gratitude to Gary Willoughby, the SPCA’s executive director, who dedicated private funds received to continuing two spay/neuter transports of up to 20 animals each to their clinic this month.

As FOTAS continues to expand SNAP, piloted so successfully in Wagener, to other county trouble-spots, the SPCA will be ramping up their surgical capacity in the new Albrecht Center.  The partnership emerging between the two organizations has the potential to move our county ever closer to never having to euthanize an adoptable pet!

There are so many ways you can help us achieve this goal.  One way is to make a donation to our Capital Campaign for the new county shelter.  Another is to write a check to FOTAS-SNAP and help fund targeted spay/neuter with the SPCA.

Or, now that the cold weather is upon us, the county shelter badly needs warm blankets for its current residents who are relegated to the overflow pens. 

Donate: dollars, food, or blankets.  Volunteer.  Foster.  Adopt a shelter pet.  Help make the possibilities realities.  We need you; in fact, can’t do it without you.   

 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”

October 29^th thru November 4^th     

Received: 50 dogs and 44 cats!

Adopted: 10 dogs and 2 cats

Euthanized: 27 dogs and 34 cats

 Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!” So much LOVE for so little!

 

Jazmine - Boxer/Mix: Walks well on leash. OK with cats.

 Only $35 

 

LOONEY – 3 yrs 13lbs  Siamese mix female. Gorgeous! Prefers to be only, or top-kitty.  Yours for only $35.                              

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

What a Day for FOTAS at the Chocolate Festival

If you slid into the 24^th Annual Chocolate Festival off of Fairfield Avenue last week, between the Karaoke Bandstand and the big bouncy slide, you encountered the enthusiastic representatives of FOTAS. 

Sergio, DaVinci, Joanie, Ritchie and Rex, five unique adoptable dogs from the Aiken County Shelter, represented us the best.  They were the stars.  At very least, many attendees stopped to lavish attention on those lovable dogs; at best, two of them were adopted, Sergio and DaVinci, and went home with their new families. 

Occasionally, it seemed like Rex, Ritchie and Joanie were going to be chosen, too.  But it wasn’t their day.  Check them out on Petfinder.com, and see for yourself how special they truly are.

The Serteen animal-lovers, Katie, Jada, Madison, Justine, Carly and their supervisor, Valorie, came to help show off the dogs. The Serteens have become regular ambassadors for the animals at the County Shelter, and FOTAS has learned to count on them as valued members of our family.

The new edition of the “FOTAS Dogfather” tee-shirt and the brand new “Fairy Dogmother” shirt, both conversation starters among dog enthusiasts, went on sale that day.  If sales at the Chocolate Festival are an indication, and you want one, you had better come out to Steeplechase (10/27) or Woofstock (11/10) and get it while supplies last.

The corner assigned to FOTAS was perfect.  It offered a big area to set up dog pens and retail displays for our hats and shirts; two picnic tables for folks to gather around; lots of shade, and many, many attendees walking by.

In our quest to bring the plight of the county’s homeless animals to the public’s attention, and to bring public concern and involvement to our community shelter, FOTAS welcomes the opportunity to participate in community events like ST. Mary’s Chocolate Festival.

This year, we are focused on our Capital Campaign for the new Aiken County Shelter, due to break ground in a few months. Our volunteers work to make the public aware that we exist, that the need is urgent, and that together we can truly make an essential difference.

As people stopped to chat last week, we were amazed again by how many still do not know that there are two local shelters: one private, one public; one state-of-the-art-brand-spanking-new, and one that was grossly inadequate ten years ago, but is obligated to function in service to the public, but not to the animals.

Our next major fundraiser is our second Woofstock Festival on November 10^th.  It kicks of with our first “Mutt Strut,” a family-oriented dog parade that will kick off the festival.  Last Saturday, we had our Mutt Strut posters and flyers out.  If you missed yours, go to the FOTAS website www.fotasaiken.org/woofstock

Register, get friends and family to sponsor you and your dog(s) participation, raise $100, $200 or $300+ dollars and win prizes.  The biggest prize is a chance to win a 64gig iPad.

The Grand Prize is a shelter we can take pride in.  Please help.

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”

October 1^st thru 7^th   

AVIS-A young adult Calico tabby. Gorgeous markings, sweet dispositions. $35

Received: 76 dogs! and 17 cats!

Adopted: 12 dogs and 10 cats!

Euthanized: 32 dogs and 17 cats

Aiken County Animal Shelter "Pets of the Week!" So much LOVE for so little!

TRAVIS-A handsome gentle bear  who deserves a forever home. $70

 

 

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