Keeping up with the humane society

0

The Fayette Regional Humane Society (FRHS) has been busy, partially due to its animal rescue efforts, unplanned puppy and kitten program, preparing for the first virtual walk against animal cruelty, and other services provided to the public.

On Wednesday morning, a male cat named “Dodge” could be heard meowing for help in a parking lot near the FRHS facility. He was found stuck under an engine area of a parked vehicle for an unknown duration of time.

According to Brad Adams, FRHS Chief Humane Agent and Outreach Director, “the poor little guy was panting and had half of his body dangling to the ground with its rear half caught in wiring.”

Dodge sustained nerve damage in his back leg and is now in the care of FRHS.

The unplanned puppy and kitten program is designed to provide unplanned litters with health benefits, homes, and to assist with preventing the parent animals from having further unplanned litters.

Essentially, FRHS will take unplanned litters into its adoption program and will then provide spay/neuter, shots, health checks, etc. and adopt those litters out. The parent dogs or cats will then be spayed and neutered at no cost.

One of the recent uses of this program was when a household from Greenfield was informed they could use the service. Two litters of Labrador/Saint Bernard mix puppies were turned over to FRHS. The puppies were kept in quarantine within the facility for 10 days to watch for health concerns, were vaccinated, dewormed, spayed/neutered, socialized and micro-chipped. The puppies’ mothers were then spayed.

Applications for the adoption of the puppies opened at approximately 11 a.m. on Wednesday and by 7:30 p.m. that same day, application submissions were closed as each puppy had an application submitted for potential adoption. Adoption visits began last Friday and every puppy of the two litters was adopted out by Saturday — totaling an adoption of 25 puppies within one week.

According to Adams, a few of the adopters for the puppies traveled quite a distance — including from Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Currently, there are no more puppies on a waiting list for FRHS, but there are approximately 56 cats and kittens on a waiting list to come in. There are 90 cats and kittens currently in the FRHS adoption program. Those 90 cats and kittens are housed at both the FRHS facility and in foster care.

So far this year, FRHS has adopted out 812 animals, according to Adams.

For information on the puppies and kittens available for adoption through FRHS, follow its Facebook page, keep an eye on Petfinder, or use the FRHS website.

Adoption costs (with pre-adoption medical care and supplies included, along with a goody bag of coupons and a small bag of food) are typically $300 for puppies and dogs, $75 for kittens and $50 for cats.

“It’s always nice to see families coming with big smiles on their faces when they come to adopt a new animal,” said Adams.

Among the many services provided, one of them is a bin of courtesy pet food called the “Blessing Box.” This pet food was meant to be accessible at any time by any person experiencing an emergency that needed short-term assistance with feeding their pet(s).

According to Adams, they have received various complaints from people wanting to use the free food from this box. Some of those complaints have revolved around there being a shortage of food in the Blessing Box as well as food bags offered not being large enough.

“We can only provide dog and cat food in the pantry as donations allow. The food pantry was never intended to solely provide pet owners with the dog and cat food indefinitely but for temporary emergency situations only. We encourage pet owners to do the best they can to feed their dogs and cats independently,” explained Adams.

Due to issues surrounding the Blessing Box, it will no longer be accessible 24 hours a day. Instead, the free food distribution will be monitored and maintained during FRHS open hours to better assist those who need temporary assistance.

This year’s Walk Against Animal Cruelty is the eighth one overall, but the first virtual walk that FRHS has done. The choice to go virtual was in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The virtual walk lasts from Aug. 29 through Sept. 12.

There are two ways to join the virtual walk — either as an individual or as a fundraiser. Fundraisers set up their own page and use social media and their own contacts to form a team.

Once a team is formed, it is the fundraiser’s responsibility to track mileage during the event.

The individual participant or team fundraiser who raises the most will win a Samsung Galaxy Smart Watch, while the corporate team raising the most will receive a plaque and be featured on Facebook.

“They can either ask family and friends to help their team win by raising money or having people pledge a certain amount per mile they decide to walk by the ending of the event,” explained Adams.

As part of the virtual walk, a selfie-raffle will be held. The winner of this raffle will receive two tickets to the 2021 Furball in March.

In order to enter, a selfie must be taken of a dog or cat with its human while being walked. The photo should then be posted on social media with the tag #Fayetteregionalhumane or #Walkagainstanimalcruelty. Make sure the post is public.

To register as an individual or to create a team for this year’s Virtual Walk Against Animal Cruelty, go to www.fayetteregionalhumane.salsalabs.org/walkagainstanimalcruelty.

FRHS is located at 153 S. Main Street in Washington Court House. At this time, all visitors are required to wear masks and to utilize the hand washing station outside the FRHS doors. They can be reached by phone at 740-335-8126.

The FRHS petfinder page is located at www.petfinder.com/member/us/oh/washington-court-house/fayette-humane-society-oh248/, the FRHS website is located at www.fayetteregionalhumane.org/, and the FRHS Facebook page is “Fayette Regional Humane Society.”

Reach Jennifer Woods at 740-463-1225 or on Twitter @JennMWoods.

“Dodge,” a male cat, was heard crying for help in a parking lot near the Fayette Regional Humane Society (FRHS). FRHS Chief Humane Agent and Outreach Director Brad Adams located Dodge under the engine area of a parked car — dangling toward the ground and caught in wires. Dodge sustained nerve damage to his back leg and is now in the care of FRHS personnel. Pictured are Executive Director Dr. Lee Schrader, Animal Care Technicians Delaine Davey and Lydia Horning.
https://www.recordherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2020/07/web1_frhs-1.jpg“Dodge,” a male cat, was heard crying for help in a parking lot near the Fayette Regional Humane Society (FRHS). FRHS Chief Humane Agent and Outreach Director Brad Adams located Dodge under the engine area of a parked car — dangling toward the ground and caught in wires. Dodge sustained nerve damage to his back leg and is now in the care of FRHS personnel. Pictured are Executive Director Dr. Lee Schrader, Animal Care Technicians Delaine Davey and Lydia Horning. Courtesy photo

By Jennifer Woods

[email protected]

No posts to display