By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Thirty days ago the Tucker County Animal Shelter cried for help and Tucker County heard. Stacey Canfield said in the past 30 days, the Tucker County community has come together with an outpouring of support for the shelter.
“The donations have been pouring in like its Christmas time from Amazon. The poor mail carriers,” Canfield said. “They are delivering very heavy packages, multiple times a day, all day.”
Last month, the Shelter was in crisis. Like shelters across the area, Tucker County found itself at beyond capacity and unable to take in any more animals. Staff were taking animals home and the Shelter were housing animals wherever they could.
“We were coming to a situation where my house was full, I was maxed out, staff were taking animals home. It was not a good feeling to go home with,” Canfield said. “And these last 30 days we have taken a big, deep breath and thanked the community so much.”
When Canfield last addressed the Tucker County Commission in August, she was desperate for the community to step up and help. The Shelter was in desperate need of help and in need of fosters.
“The last time I was here I was feeling very desperate for support from the community, for people to just step up and realize the dire situation that we were in, which is we were desperate to move animals,” Canfield said.
The Shelter was housing three dogs in the offices in the cat building and keeping cats in dog kennels stacked on top of each other because of a lack of space.
“We just had no space for these animals to go,” Canfield said.
The numbers are starting to go down. In the month of August, the Shelter took in six cats and three dogs. A drastic decrease from the numbers the Shelter had been dealing with in the past few months. The numbers for July were closer to 20 cats and over 20 dogs for the month. In August, four cats were adopted and 10 dogs.
Canfield said that the Shelter has seen support from areas that they normally had never seen before such as the Davis-Thomas area and from community members on the bottom of the mountain, as well. With the location of the Shelter in Parsons, Canfield said that in the past, they hadn’t seen a lot of traffic from the Davis-Thomas area.
“The community has stepped up tremendously,” Canfield said. “We have seen a huge out pour of support.”
Canfield thanked Shaena Crossland and Mike Goss for revamping the donation box in Davis at the Shop ‘n Save. The donations have been pouring in to the point that the Shelter has been emptying the box an average of once a week, Canfield said.
“Before we could go up there once or twice a month and maybe have a bag or two of dog food in it, but now they are calling us and telling us you need to come get your stuff. Its full within a week,” Canfield said.
Donations of food in the form of Amazon package donations and donations from the donation box has helped the Shelter save money on feeding costs that can be put directly into vet costs for the animals, Canfield said.
“That saves us a lot of money that we were putting into feeding the animals and vetting the animals,” Canfield said. “We are now able to solely dedicate solely to vet bills. All the money that has come to us in the last 30 days has not had to go to food in the last 30 days and that is a huge, huge improvement for us.”
Canfield said that the cost of vetting for animals at the Shelter has changed since the last time she spoke with the Commission due to the increase of vaccine costs. The cost of vetting at the Shelter, before an animal even sees a vet outside the County, for kitten under six months of age is $100 – $110, for a cat over six months of age is $125 and dogs $155. Fees at the vet start at $50 to $100, Canfield said.
“Anytime an animal comes into our care, before it even sees the vet, because we don’t have a vet in Tucker County, we do the majority of vetting outside of emergency services and surgeries, in house at the Animal Shelter,” Canfield said.
Much of the vetting, such as vaccines, blood draws, exams and routine medications, are done in house at the Shelter to save costs on vet bills, Canfield said.
“We have a centrifuge and things that we can spin down fecal tests down for and we can hopefully get in for training really soon,” Canfield said. “It will save us a lot of money.”
Canfield said that the Shelter is looking for homes over the holidays willing to foster animals, even for a night in order to give Shelter staff a break over the holidays and allow them to spend the holidays with family and friends.
“My staff work tirelessly and its not a fun job, they are working in deposits and its emotional. The holidays I really try to clear the Shelter so that they’re not spending six to seven hours a day cleaning up a mess at the Animal Shelter, when they can actually take some time for themselves and spend it with their families and in turn, it gets the animals out a little bit and gets them in a nice home setting for the holidays.”
“The fire has been lit under the community for the Animal Shelter and we need it stay lit,” Canfield said.
