A Day of Firsts

A Day of Firsts

By Joanna Samson, FOTAS Director

At 5 a.m. on March 3^rd, Sandy Larsen, the County’s Vet Tech, pulled into the parking lot of the new Aiken County Animal Shelter.  Because she was scheduled to feature a couple of the shelter’s residents at 6:20 a.m. on Channel 12, she was the first person to work that Monday morning.

It wasn’t just any Monday morning, however; it was the first day the County’s new shelter was open for business.  Sandy, who shares with Chief Animal Control Officer Bobby Arthurs the notable distinction of being the first and longest employee of the County shelter, was struck at once by the difference in the setting.

“The building was well-lit,” says Sandy, “warm, welcoming.  The old shelter was always dark that time of morning.”

“Then,” she continues, “as I walked from my car to the back door, it hit me.  I could see the dogs in their outside kennels in the Intake Wing.  Wow!  What a difference!  In the old shelter, the dogs would be inside barking like crazy because they were doubled or tripled up in a small crate and stepping on each other.  Here, they were quiet!  It was amazing.”

At 9 a.m., the first volunteers, Caroline Simonson and Sandra Procter, arrived to walk the dogs.  Caroline and Sandra have been FOTAS volunteers for years.  In fact, according to Jennifer Miller, the President of FOTAS, Caroline may well have been the first person to respond to her first calls for help at the shelter when FOTAS was formed in 2009.

When I asked Caroline about her impressions on that first morning, she too was struck by the remarkable change in the dogs.

“They were relaxed.  They each had their own kennel.  They weren’t fighting for space or defending their food.  They weren’t bored - they could lie outside in the fresh air and watch the world go by.”

“Plus,” says Caroline, “at the old shelter, there was one small play area with a dirt surface.  The new shelter has two large, grassy areas.  When we first released the dogs, they went wild with joy - rolling gleefully on the sod.  We couldn’t stop laughing.” 

By noon, all of the adoptable dogs were played-out, and peace had settled over the shelter.  The hounds were particularly happy to stretch out in the sun and snooze.

Then came the magical moment – the first adoption on the first day.  Brooke and Jacob Jones and their beautiful daughter, Charlotte, came to the shelter to look for a family dog. They found her:  Debbie, an affectionate black border collie crossbred with a white nose and a ton of personality.

“It was a perfect match,” says Annette van der Walt, the Shelter’s Adoption Coordinator.  “Debbie and Charlotte bonded immediately.  As Debbie piled into the car with her new humans, Brandon Anceume, the kind and perceptive shelter custodian who introduced the family to Debbie, and I high-fived each other and did the 'Happy' dance from the movie “Despicable Me.”

“It was silly,” says Annette, giggling, “but we were so, so happy.”

It’s a brand new day at the Aiken County Animal Shelter, so come on over: adopt, volunteer, or just visit.  We’d love to see you.

FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 333 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”

Mar. 3, 2014 - Mar. 8, 2014

9 dogs and 1 cat adopted

Year to Date:  

91 terrific pets adopted

THANK YOU AIKEN COUNTY COMMUNITY!

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!” 

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

LOLA   Shepherd mix,  female, 2 yrs old, 49 lbs  Only $70 

BEN STILLER  Domestic short hair -- male -- 7 yrs. old, 10 lbs  Only $35

Moving On Up to the New Shelter

Moving on Up

By Joanna Samson, FOTAS Director

as seen in the Aiken Standard 3/9/14 issue

It finally happened.  As of last Sunday, County staff and FOTAS volunteers had completed the move from the small, outdated, dilapidated shelter to the beautiful new Aiken County Animal Shelter down the road.

The Cat House and the cats had been moved earlier in the week.

Then, on Sunday FOTAS volunteers walked many of the adoptable dogs the short distance to their new quarters in the Adoption Wing, while other FOTAS volunteers moved puppies and older dogs by truck.  County staff moved all of the intake dogs by truck to the Animal Control Wing.

By 3:00 p.m., all the animals had been moved and were safely nestled in their new digs.

It was a glorious, euphoric moment.  FOTAS volunteers and County staff were a little breathless with exertion, but they were all smiles.

And the four-legged residents?  The change was astounding.  The dogs wagged their tails and relaxed in their outdoor runs, enjoying the fresh air.  Despite all the activity and all the people, the shelter was the closest thing to peaceful that a building housing that many animals can be. Really.

Oh sure, there was the occasional hoopla over the escape artist who jumped from kennel to kennel until finally cornered, or the puppies yipping for dinner, or the little Chihuahua cross barking for attention, but by and large, the anxious, high-pitched barking so common in the old shelter because the dogs were all crowded together in close, inside quarters was absent.

I knelt in front of the kennel of an 8-month-old, little white and red pit bull named Pete, who showered my outstretched hand with big, wet kisses.   I thought: “You know what, Handsome? You’ll be okay in this place. Here you’ll have more time and a better chance for some lucky soul to overcome their uneasiness about pit bulls and fall madly in love with you.”  I leaned my forehead against his cage and choked back tears.  

But wait! We aren’t finished! Now that we’ve provided a clean, inspiring, happy community shelter for the animals, we need you, the community, to do your part.

Please: come to your community shelter and adopt your new pet.  Don’t be afraid you will be overwhelmed by despair. On the contrary, you will be able to take your time and find that perfect animal in a hopeful, cheerful setting.  Remember, every pet that finds a home makes space for another animal on the adoption floor, potentially saving two lives.

Please: volunteer your time with FOTAS.  We desperately need volunteers to sit behind the desk to greet the public, answer the phone and help the Adoption Coordinator.  

Okay, meet and greet not your thing?  We will find a job for you that makes you happy: walking the dogs, playing with cats and puppies, grooming, helping with the gardens – there are so many possibilities.

Pick up the phone now and call the FOTAS hotline at (803) 514-4313 or contact us at info@fotasaiken.org, and we’ll get you started.  I promise you’ll be glad you did.

FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 333 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”

Feb. 24, 2014 - Mar. 1, 2014

9 dogs and 1 cats adopted

Year to Date:  

81 terrific pets adopted

THANK YOU AIKEN COUNTY COMMUNITY!

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!” 

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

PETE   Pit bull/boxer,  male, 8 mos old, 43 lbs  Only $70 

SIMON COWELL  Domestic short hair -- male -- 7 yrs. old, 10 lbs  Only $35

New Shelter is Part of a Proud Community Partnership

A Proud Community Partnership

By Joanna Dunn Samson, FOTAS Director

as seen in the "Aiken Standard" on January 5, 2013

The Friends of the Animal Shelter – Aiken County (FOTAS) is, by its very nature, a private charitable organization created for one purpose: to supplement the limited resources of the Aiken County Animal Shelter to improve the lives of the animals who are consigned to the County’s care.

The job of the Aiken County Animal Shelter is daunting. It provides animal control and adoption services for the largest County in the State of South Carolina.  It is required by law to pick up stray dogs and cats and to accept all dogs and cats surrendered to the shelter by County residents and by City residents to the extent space is unavailable at designated City facilities. In 2012, the County took in 4800 animals, and the intake number for 2013 is expected to be equally distressing. Needless to say, the euthanasia numbers, by necessity, are haunting.

FOTAS takes its job as the private partner seriously.  It created a large network of dedicated volunteers to help with the animals squeezed into the frightfully overcrowded shelter.  It organizes off-site adoptions, foster care and transfers to no-kill facilities in other parts of the country.  It organizes donations of food, blankets and funds to help the dedicated staff at the County shelter address the day-to-day needs of a facility strained way, way past its design limits.

Perhaps the proudest achievement of the County/FOTAS public/private partnership is the new shelter under construction on May Royal Drive that when complete in February, will meet modern standards for humane care for the thousands of homeless animals that pass through its doors.

FOTAS worked closely with the County every step of the way.  It helped develop design criteria, funded the cost of the architectural plan ($125,000), and helped with the selection of the project architect. 

FOTAS volunteer Bob Bye, serves as the project construction manager, saving the County an additional $30,000 dollars.  

FOTAS has also funded the kennels, cage banks and equipment for the new shelter.

Perhaps the most gratifying aspect of this public/private effort has been the extent to which the community has rallied around – its generosity of spirit, resources, and donations to FOTAS and the thousands of unwanted animals in the County has been nothing short of breathtaking. 

And of course, all of the countless, dedicated volunteers of all ages and all walks of life from the Aiken Community who walked dogs, played with cats, helped with adoptions, managed databases, created and managed the FOTAS website, Facebook Page and prepared blast emails, wrote thank you notes, and prepared mass mailings - these are the folks that form the bedrock upon which the County/FOTAS partnership thrives.

When the new County shelter opens next month, it won’t be flashy or grand, but it will be a healthy, humane shelter built by all of us in the Aiken community.

As well it should be.  The new shelter will be able to manage the County’s current intake, but unless those numbers are reduced, all our noble efforts will be for naught.  Success depends upon the collective commitment of the whole community to a robust spay/neuter program.

We at FOTAS believe the Aiken community is up to the task and the day is nearly at hand when more people will visit their community shelter to adopt or volunteer rather than to surrender their unwanted pets.

That day can’t come soon enough.

Join us in the next phase of our work. Contact us at www.FOTASAiken.org or call us at 803-514-4313 to see how you can make a difference.

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”

Dec. 23 - Dec. 28, 2013

16 dogs and 4 cats adopted

Year to Date:  

742 terrific pets adopted

THANK YOU AIKEN COUNTY COMMUNITY!

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!” 

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

TEXAS   Hound,  male, 3 1/2 yrs old, 36 lbs  Only $70 

SHYRA   Domestic medium hair -- female -- 6 yrs old, 12 lbs  Only $35

Happy 4th Birthday FOTAS

We keep coming back to what Gandhi said: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."  What about a large rural county; can they be judged as well?  Four years ago this week, Friends of the Animal Shelter, Inc. was created to confront that very question.  How great can a home community be when it is handling thousands of its unwanted animals like refuse?

FOTAS started in 2009 raising money and making upgrades to the existing facility: a roof and floor for the overflow pens, a large dog play yard, a lovely adoptable cat house, laundry equipment, grooming tub, stainless cage banks for surgery patients.  We established a volunteer program, a foster care program, and a transfer program.  We helped Aiken County residents confront the dirty secret that well over 5,000 animals, most of which were adoptable pets, were arriving at the county shelter annually and almost all of them were dying there.  But with all the work that went into our current county animal control facility, everyone who actually went there knew the upgrades were mostly lipstick on a pig.  Aiken County needed, and justly deserved, a new county animal shelter.   

FOTAS, since its inception, has seen itself as an ally and partner of county government.  Animal control is a public obligation, a component of health and safety; animal welfare and advocacy is not. A community has to determine who they want to be, how they want to operate in and on the world in terms of its relationship to the innocents and dependents within it.  FOTAS has given animal advocates in our community a voice and the resources to leverage that voice.  And God smiled upon that effort by providing a team of county employees, elected officials, and shelter staff to join forces with the will of the Aiken County community, and to chart the way to a brand new Aiken County Animal Shelter, along with the programs to support its success.

FOTAS paid for the study to determine the appropriate course to an adequate county shelter.  When it was determined that a new shelter was the only effective and efficient way forward, FOTAS paid $125,000 for the architectural and engineering plans.  This was 25% more than the original figure agreed upon.  The county found the perfect piece of property on the corner of May Royal and Wire Road, and on March 3rd of this year we broke ground with a high-spirited ceremony.  The building is expected to be completed by the end of the year.  FOTAS has undertaken the responsibility to "Fit, Furnish and Finish" the facility.  The Fit, FURnish and Finish fundraising campaign is underway, and there are numerous opportunities to participate and to contribute.  For more complete information, contact FOTAS or go to the website.

We can be excited about our new building, but FOTAS also realizes that a building alone is not the answer.  Without a cultural shift to make responsible pet owners part of the fabric of our community, no building will ever be large enough.  To that end, FOTAS established the Spay Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) one year ago.   SNAP now partners with the County Voucher Program and the SPCA Albrecht Center and hundreds of dogs and cats have been fixed, meaning literally thousands fewer unwanted animals. 

We have so much to be grateful for in the last four years, and as FOTAS begins its 5th year, so much to look forward to.  This time next year, our new County Shelter will be humming.  We hope to encourage more and more community pride and involvement.  Our vision is that no adoptable pet will have to die there.  FOTAS is one reflection of Aiken County's moral progress - and its greatness.  Join us.  Please help. We still have a long way to go.

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”

The WEEK of July 8th thru 14^th ‘13

Brought in:  73 dogs and 44 cats!!

Adopted:  17 dogs and 1 cat 

Put down:   43 dogs and 36 cats!

Aiken County Shelter  “Pets of the Week”

SISSY  – Hound mix. 1.5 yrs.   A sweet, playful forever friend!  Yours for only $70

 

DALE – Tabby kitten. He is adorable! Your new baby for only $35

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Site Prep for the New County Shelter is a Family Affair

“We design everything from the ground down,” is how Tilden Hilderbrand sums up the work he and his partner, Todd Hass, do as a surveying and civil engineering firm here in Aiken.

In fact, if one were to walk across Aiken County, you would be hard pressed not to cross a site that they have worked on, especially if you include Citizens Park or the tennis courts at Odell Weeks, or the more than 350 jobs they have done for the Aiken County Schools, People’s Bank, Holiday Inn, Cedar Creek, and the new Fresh Market project on Whiskey Road. 

However, it is unlikely that any undertaking in the realms of site development connects to more hearts these days than the one on the corner of May Royal and Wire Road, the site of the new Aiken County Animal Shelter.  And for Tilden Hilderbrand, it is a special labor of love. Here’s why.

Three years ago this month, eight stalwart FOTAS volunteers turned out for our very first public event, “Trick-or-Treat on Newberry Street.”  Among the new organization’s representatives were Tilden Hilderbrand’s wife, Susan, and his two son’s Alex and Seth (pictured here with our Cat-of-the-Week).

 Susan and the boy’s commitment to the adoptable animals at the County Shelter predated FOTAS.  Nearly every day after school, they took pictures of the adoptable dogs and cats and faithfully put them up on the website, Petfinder.com.  That October, 2009, the Hilderbrand boys went far beyond service to FOTAS in wearing our paper maché mascot costumes. 

FOTAS also came to rely on Susan for her creative displays of adoptable animals at events (like the Wizard of Oz), and the County Shelter signs in True Value Hardware, Stoplight Deli and Bone-i-Fide Bakery downtown.  Without her beautiful photographs, people who would never go to the shelter might not know that the animals or the shelter, were even there.

Now Tilden Hilderbrand has joined the family in service to a project more than a decade on the minds of too few who knew the need.  And when you are designing a Public Animal Shelter, “everything from the ground down,” gets at the essentials of the project.

The four-plus acre lot is a rolling woodlot, and the architect working with the county and FOTAS, was determined to keep as much of the wooded park-like feel that the project design could realistically encompass. 

Hass and Hilderbrand’s expertise will save many trees; they will determine the minimum earth to be moved; how the facility will tie into utilities; they assure the accuracy of the site footprint; and, who to see for what essential permits. 

Every single person connected with this project understands how important every dollar saved is to its ultimate success, and no one more than Hilderbrand and Hass. 

Once again, Aiken County owes a debt of gratitude to this firm, and once again FOTAS is deeply thankful to the Hilderbrand family.

Brochures depicting the new County Shelter and opportunities to contribute will be available soon.  Get excited; get involved! 

  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”

September 24^th thru 30^th   

Received: 30 dogs and 60 cats!

Adopted: 16 dogs and 4 cats

Put down: 22 dogs and 47 cats

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

SERGIO – 1 yr. loveable Lab mix needs to go, so he is on sale for $35.  Great deal for a great dog.

MOMI (3yrs) and Tilden’s son, SETH – The cat is gorgeous.  She is yours for only $35.    

 

 

    

 

 

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