Community Saves 42 Animals from Euthanasia

1 of 22 Cats Saved

Just when you think no one cares –

On Monday evening, July 22, WVIR ran a story about the crisis emerging at the Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center.  The center had so many dogs and cats in the shelter they had run out of space and were facing having to decide which of their companion animals would have to be euthanized.

After learning of the dire situation, the staff at Shelterplanners decided to spend the day helping the community save animals!

The Shenandoah Valley in Virginia stretches from Winchester to Roanoke. Activities there are regularly covered via television broadcast to all of Central Virginia by WVIR, NBC 29 in Charlottesville some 30 miles East across the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Volunteers from the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA rose to the call and, drove 45 minutes across Afton Mountain to Lyndhurst, VA to see if they could provide some assistance – and it’s a good thing they did! 

Concerned citizens from not only the Valley but as far away as Culpeper inundated the Center with phone calls and personal visits volunteering to adopt dogs and cats to relieve the shelter’s distress. 

One volunteer transported 5 cats to the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA, a No Kill shelter – in all, 19 dogs, 22 cats and a bunny were adopted or transferred to foster homes and other shelters.

Overwhelmed by the response, the staff at the shelter could not keep up with the influx of calls as well as folks who simply arrived unannounced to adopt.  The volunteers from across the mountain helped the shelter staff by providing much needed aid with adoption paperwork, answering phones and helping introduce animals to their new families.

Not a single companion animal had to be euthanized!

How’s that for community involvement in animal welfare?

Why Building a New Animal Shelter Alone Won't Save More Animals

Simply stated, we can’t build our way out of shelter overcrowding.

Sure enough, a properly sized, well designed, and well planned animal shelter is essential to maintaining healthy animals and can contribute to some extent to increased adoption rates.  All of our newly designed shelters have, but long term adoption success requires a great deal more.

Animal welfare organizations that have implemented the array of programs originally put forth by the No Kill movement have experienced significant advances in their animal save rates.  No longer a controversial set of guidelines as they were when first introduced, engaging the community in the “animal rescue mission”; investing in low cost spay neuter; partnering with rescue groups; implementing “TNR” of feral cats; promoting comprehensive adoption programs and fiercely defending the life of every animal in the shelter are now proven components of success.

We have clients looking to build new shelters that are already experiencing save rates above 90% for all of their sheltered animals – all in an older shelter in dire need of more space – consistently reminding me and the Shelterplanners’ team; it’s all about the programs, stupid!

A new animal shelter provides an attractive, stable platform from which your organization can successfully implement programs that will accomplish the goal of saving every healthy companion animal in your care.  The well designed shelter provides you with a bright, cheery, healthy environment that attracts potential adopters - but without the essential programs to keep those adoptions on track, it will be quickly overrun.