Pearl, a 12-year-old, medium-haired female, wakes gently from a nap. She is looking for a quiet home and a lap to cuddle only when she pleases. Because she is older and has had a semi-lengthy stay at the shelter, her adoption fee has been wavered in hopes that someone will give her a forever home regardless of her age.
Charlie and Pippin, two guinea pigs at the Animal Welfare society, would like to go to a new family together so they can live out the rest of their lives together with people that will care for them well.
“We’re a community resource. We can do a lot more than help shelter pets,” said Smith. “We have outreach programs to help people stay with their pets, as well as education programs. We will still be the safety net for any pets in the community, but now we can also be the safety net for people attached to those pets.”
Outreach programs such as humane education programs help children of all ages understand what it means to be a responsible pet owner. This includes guided instruction on how to approach an animal and keep your pet safe from harm’s way.
The shelter also offers discounted spaying and neutering services for qualifying community members.
“We don’t really have a homeless pet problem like other parts of the country do because we’ve been so good at managing spay and neuter issues,” stated Smith. “We want to expand those resources for folks in the community who need help with veterinary care.”
Although AWS serves the surrounding York County community, one of its stronger goals for 2016 is to bring animals up from Georgia, where peer shelters often transfer animals.
Even though the AWS will bring in an estimated 2,000 animals next year, Smith predicts it won’t be hard to find each of them loving homes, given to how receptive the community is to animal adoption.
“Animals are dying in other parts of the countries in numbers you couldn’t imagine, and it’s our mission now to go beyond our community and make a difference elsewhere,” she said.
The shelter’s most recent promotion, “Home for the Holidays,” has only one mission: That each and every shelter pet will find a new home before the end of the year. Its goal is to showcase shelter pets that have spent too long without a permanent home and raise awareness on the importance of spay/neuter programs.
Stephanie Kelley, development associate at AWS, explained that cats have a harder time getting adopted out, especially if they are older or have a medical condition. One of the shelter cats, a 9-year-old short hair named Luna, has been at the shelter for over a year because of her lifelong diagnosis of feline diabetes.
“What people don’t understand is that her condition is treatable; she only requires a regulated diet of wet-food and daily insulin injections,” said Kelley. “It’s not as expensive as it all may seem. It’s a manageable illness, and her loving, quiet personality is really nice to be around.”
Although hopes are high for Luna’s adoption, the shelter will continue to celebrate all the animals for which they have found forever homes.
“We are fortunate enough to have a wonderful community willing to help us advocate humane education and animal adoption,” said Smith. “AWS is in growth mode, and we will continue to evolve to the needs of the community.”
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