We don’t have a Pet of the Week. That’s because we have many, many Pets of the Week.
Each week, we try to find some positive news to share with our readers and supporters. This week we can report we recently adopted three dogs locally and sent six adult dogs to Massachusetts, where four of them are already in their new forever homes. Good news, right?
Sadly, the bad news overwhelms that bit of sunshine.
We currently have no fewer than 49 dogs under our care and two being held in Animal Control until we can find a corner to squeeze them in. That doesn’t include the couple of hundred on our waiting list that we most likely won’t be able to help. We only have kennel space for 14, so where are the other 35?
The past couple of weeks, we’ve announced we are operating in crisis mode for a number of reasons…space limitations, volunteer limitations, and more. We have been trying to reduce our numbers of animals to where we only need two people to feed, walk, and clean kennels twice a day. We are not succeeding. And we didn’t eve get those nine dogs mentioned above out of the shelter until13 dogs were taken from a house fire in Summit. We just don’t have space or volunteers to take care of an additional 13 dogs, so most of them are in the homes of our volunteers. Additionally, we have some people who are taking care of Shelter animals at home and at the Shelter. To make things worse, two of the dogs have tested positive for heart worm and will need to go into treatment, which means they will be in the Shelter for months on cage rest until we can let them safely go into a home.
Oh, and did we mention we also have 19 cats in the building and another 15 in foster homes? We didn’t mention it because we actually have more and no one has had time to get all of them entered into the computer system so we have a truly accurate count.
As you can see, “crisis mode” may be an understatement. We are pleading for help. Our small group of dedicated volunteers are tired, sad, and overwhelmed but they soldier on because they care deeply about these animals. If anyone out there would be willing to help us…even with a few hours each week…please come by the shelter (which is currently open Wednesday through Saturday) or call during the hours we are open. Our answering machine remains turned off because the number of incoming voicemails adds to our already staggering work load. Until we can work our way back to a “normal” workload, we will only be answering the phone during hours the Shelter is open (Wednesday through Saturday, 9 am to 3 pm).
We would much rather be focusing on good news stories, but we felt it’s important that our community know the true situation we’re dealing with right now. Please help if you can. We are always grateful for the support we do get. But, right now, we really need help.
To volunteer or to meet any of our adoptables, please come by the shelter during our open hours (shown above) at 657 Highway 202 West in Yellville or call (again, during open hours only) 870-449-7387.
Here are a few photos of some of our current adoptable dogs:
