Pledge to Stop Puppy Mills!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Cookies for Contraception: ACHS Bake Sale Part of Spay Day USA


The table on the first floor of Baker Center was littered with brownies, cookies, muffins, breads and other baked goodies. Holly Koprowski, an organizational communication major and ACHS volunteer, sat behind the table with a tin box for donations in front of her. During the 15 minutes I sat talking with her, at least three people stopped by the table, some donating money in exchange for a tasty treat and some just donating money.

"I think they come more for the cause than anything else," Koprowski said. "It's puppies and kittens!"

The bake sale, sponsored by the Ohio University Pre-Veterinarian program, was the ACHS's contribution to Spay Day USA, an annual event held by the Humane Society of the United States. The event occurs every year on the last Tuesday in February, and humane societies across the country participate in order to encourage pet owners to spay and neuter their pets.

Even though the ACHS has held many successful bake sales in the past, Koprowski had a bad dream the night before that left her feeling anxious about the event. However, her nerves were quickly quieted thanks to an outpouring of support from the university community. The bake sale, which also had a sign-up sheet for two different t-shirts advocating getting pets fixed, brought in $250 for the society.

"It was a lot more successful than I thought," Koprowski said. All of the money earned at the event went to sponsoring animals and the ACHS's mobile spay and neuter clinics. The treats, which were on sale form 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on February 24, were donated by the National Communication Association Student Club, the Pre-Veterinarian program, the ACHS and any friends that could be convinced to participate.

We just asked everyone we knew to bake something, said Koprowski, a lifetime animal lover thanks in part to her mother's job as a veterinarian's assistant. "We want to raise just as much as we can for the clinic and for Spay Day USA."

ACHS volunteer Holly Koprowski mans the bake sale table for Spay Day USA

Getting both male and female animals fixed is an important part of pet ownership that is often disregarded. Spaying or neutering pets can help with behavioral problems and prevents unwanted litters that can become a financial burden. In fact, the biggest portion of the ACHS's budget goes to ensuring pets in the region can get the operation. Humane society volunteers, however, aren't the only ones concerned about getting animals fixed. A YouTube video created by the Alliance for Humane Action and posted on the ACHS's Web site shows a more...unique... point of view...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Help Without a Home

Shelley Leiberman is homeless. Well, she’s not technically homeless, but her passion is. Lieberman is the Vice President of the Athens County Humane Society, a completely volunteer organization without a building to call home. However, the group has managed to dig its claws in enough to remain an active player in the crusade for animal rights in the region by finding homes, both temporary and permanent, for animals and organizing mobile spay and neuter clinics to help cut back on overpopulation.

Now, there may be some starry-eyed idealists out there with the belief that there can never be too many kitties and puppies in the world, but unfortunately for animal lovers everywhere, that is simply not the case. When there are too many animals and not enough resources, the animals are abandoned and left to survive cold winters without shelter or food. In fact, one of the main reasons the actual shelter closed down in 2005 was because people began using the site as a kind of dumping ground for unwanted litters.

“They were putting down three to five hundred cats a month,” said Lieberman. “Instead of spaying or neutering their pets, they were letting them just have kittens and dropping them off.”

As if that isn’t bad enough, there was only one part-time staff member in charge of putting down animals.

“I don’t know how she is still sane,” Lieberman said. “Anyone working in a shelter is an animal lover. That’s not why she signed up to be in that field.”

Lieberman believes that closing the shelter did help lower the number of animals being put down, however, because it is harder for a pet owner to bring an animal to a veterinarian’s office to be put to sleep than to simply drop of a box of kittens and drive away.

To help encourage people to get their animals fixed, the organization – which assists both dogs and cats but focuses more on cats because it is the only group in the area that deals with felines – organizes mobile spay and neuter clinics. The society tries to hold clinics once a month, and because there is a two to three month waiting list, pet owners need to register and pay in advance to ensure they actually attend the event. The society also offers a subsidy program to qualified applicants who may not be able to afford the procedure. For information about the clinics and subsidy program, visit the ACHS Web site.

Foster Families and Satellite Sites


Because the organization does not have an actual building, the society uses its Web site and an online pet adoption service, petfinder.com, to find permanent placements. Meanwhile, the cats are placed in temporary homes or at satellite sites in the community. The society never officially takes ownership of the animals, however, and most of the time an animal rescuer is the one who takes the cat in until it is adopted. The society would like to organize a foster program, but there is one glaring problem with the idea – animals are just too darn cute.

“If I had to guess, I would say 90 percent of fosters want to keep the animal,” Lieberman said. “Then, we don’t have a foster anymore.”

Because the organization is entirely run on donations, funding also becomes an issue, and the group simply cannot afford to provide animal care necessities to foster families right now. Lieberman has hopes, though, to have a foster program running within six months.

Until then, the group also utilizes satellite sites to help place animals. Satellite sites are companies in the community that agree to keep animals and provide adoption information to interested customers. Currently, Import House, Lamborn’s Studio and Abfall’s Veterinary Clinic are the only satellite sites in town, but Lieberman hopes to get more within the next three months.

Karen McGuire, manager of Import House on Court Street, reached out to the humane society after seeing cats at Lamborn’s about two years ago. Since then, the business has assisted in getting around 40 cats adopted. “They don’t last too long,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve had a cat over six weeks.”


Karen McGuire, manager of Import House, cuddles with ACHS cat, Raven.

Currently, Import House is home to two black brother cats, Raven and Moon. Kari Eavenson, an employee at the business for three years, enjoys having the cats around and hopes they can be adopted as a set.

“Two cats are a lot more work than one, but they are so much better with each other,” she said while sporadically whipping a cat toy back and forth for Raven to chase. “They really do feed off of each other.”

Raven, Moon and their mother were kept in a cage in the garage of a woman whose newborn baby was very allergic to cats. Luckily, living in the cage did not impede the younger cats from developing physically, but living at Import House does give them the chance to run around and get exercise. They also have the opportunity to become socialized with people. Considering many orphaned pets come from abusive situations, living in a business with high traffic helps them adjust. They also have the opportunity to interact with other animals; McGuire often brings in her dogs, and patrons of the store are allowed to bring in their pets as well.

Raven and Moon chase their string toy as Import House employee Kari Eavenson sporadically whips it back and forth.

Eventually, the humane society would like to once again have a shelter, but Lieberman wants to wait until everything – timing, finances, community support – are all in place before beginning the endeavor.

“When we do open a shelter again, it needs to be done right. It needs to be done with a full-time staff, it needs to have a good facility and be supported by the community,” she said. “We’re just not there now.”