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No-kill shelter gets grant from Toyota
Lee's Paws and Claws interim director Ann Gillmore-Hoffman can't say enough good things about the support her shelter has received from a local car dealer, Shepherd Team Auto Plaza.
"Nothing seems to be too much for them," Gillmore-Hoffman said. "They have been very good to us."
The dealership began its relationship with the shelter last fall, sponsoring adoptions the last week of each month.
Last week, the shelter again felt the positive effects of the car dealer's reach, after being awarded a $2,500 matching grant from Toyota, which management from the dealership encouraged Gillmore-Hoffman to apply for.
"Tom Owens, who is the general manager at Shepherd Team Auto Plaza knew that Toyota did matching grants and so he started the wheels turning on this and in December, Shepherd gave us a gift of $2,500," Gillmore-Hoffman said. "He put me in touch with them and I filled out an application online and submitted it."
Gillmore-Hoffman said the shelter received a check for $2,500 from Toyota last week and the timing couldn't have been any better.
She said the shelter currently has a full house, with about 15 dogs and about 15 cats." The shelter also has been hit with some unexpected expenditures lately.
"Several months ago, we took in 12 dogs and six cats that had been seized from a hoarder in a neighboring county (Linn)," Gillmore-Hoffman said. "They had all been living in cages in a single-wide trailer. At 10 o'clock at night we were admitting these dogs. We contacted some other no-kill shelters in the state and transferred them to other shelters. The whole process was something I had never experienced before."
She said the last of the dogs was transferred out yesterday, but not before the ordeal cost the shelter about an additional $1,000.
"The vet bill alone for the different heartworm tests and things like that we had to run was close to $700," Gillmore-Hoffman said. "Then the additional feeding and bathing of the dogs added to the overhead here at the shelter."
She said the grant money will be used to offset the cost of adoptions and to help with the adoption promotions they currently are doing.
"Right now we are keeping our costs as low as possible and all of the animals that we make available for adoptions have either been spayed or neutered and we test the dogs for heartworms and the cats for feline leukemia and auto immune deficiency," she said. "The $55 for cats and $65 for dogs really only covers the cost of the tests and the vaccinations that we give them. Most shelters charge considerably more."
She said, for example, Wichita's base price is $120.
"At this point, we are doing the same adoption fee no matter what the animal is," she said. "There are a lot of shelters that if it is a cute little puppy, the cost is more than if it is an older, big, lunky dog that they really don't think is going to be placeable."
She said the car dealer has helped the shelter in numerous ways, including the last Saturday of every month, when the dealership pays the adoption fees for animals the shelter brings to the dealership for public showing.
"They have been very good," Gillmore-Hoffman said. "They are still very actively promoting the adoptions the last Saturday of every month. That has expanded - we are now doing a rabies clinic that's open to the public. Anyone that wants to bring their dog in for a rabies shot, we charge $8, which covers the cost of the injection. The city also sends a lady down to make city dog tags available so that people who are working during the week can still have access to the purchase of city dog tags."
She said the cost is $3 if your pet has been spayed or neutered and $5 if it is intact.
"Of course to get the city dog tag, you have to have proof of a rabies vaccination. So it all goes hand-in-hand," Gillmore-Hoffman said.
She said Owens himself has adopted a dog from the shelter, as have numerous Shepherd's employees.
"We've been very successful getting animals adopted and also the community exposure has been good because the adoptions have picked up out here at the shelter since we started doing the Saturdays at Shepherd's," she said. "They have just been great with us so far as loaning us the trucks so we can haul (the animals) into the dealership."
Gillmore-Hoffman said the shelter will be represented at the Home Show at Fort Scott Community College next weekend and also is planning a "Second Annual Strut Your Mutt" fundraiser later this spring.
"It will be our first second annual event," she said.