Walker County Animal Shelter needs people to step up and assist with the many homeless pets this holiday.
The pets need blankets, dog and cat food and small bags.
“We always need volunteers,” said shelter Executive Director Alison Smith. “These are the community’s animals and we need the community to help. I need 30 to 40 foster families so the animals are out of the shelter being educated and being socialized for adoption.”
Smith said one of her New Year’s goals is to start an Adoption Committee in-house that would select the “Top Dogs” for adoption on a weekly basis.
“My vision is to have a few staff at the end of each day spend time with the pets to teach them a new skill,” said Smith, adding that she hopes it will help the animal overcome issues it might have. “We want to focus on those able to be adopted.”
In the evenings, Smith takes some of the adoptable pets to an individual rescue service to be sent out to be adopted.
“If we had fosters to house animals for two to four weeks, then we know we could ship healthy animals,” she said. “We can’t ship animals straight from a shelter environment. Many animals come to us without shots [or] with a disease because people can’t take care of them. It would not be right to ship an animal with a disease.”
Smith said the Walker County Animal Shelter is glad to be partnered with Wally’s Friends Spay and Neuter Clinic. Since the partnership began, the shelter’s numbers have dropped 2,000 annually in the last five years. The shelter now takes in 4,000 annually on average, said Smith.
“Walker County Animal Shelter does commend those that choose to be responsible by spaying and neutering their companion animals,” she said, adding that doing so helps to reduce the number of unwanted pets.