12:22am
West Plains Regional Animal Shelter
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Our shelter serves a rather large area of south-central Missouri and northern Arkansas. First of all, it is a no-kill shelter that takes as many unwanted pets as it can possibly handle. I know that it "sqeezes in" pets who have no other options, even when it is already full.
Ours is an area with a long tradition of not understanding the responsibilty of pet ownership. As a child, I remember that many people did not neuter pets, let them roam at will and abandoned them when the animal ended up at the city pound, where they were soon euthanized.
Having returned to the community after being away for quite a few years, I discovered that the culture had changed dramatically in regard to its concern for responsible pet ownership and the humane treatment of stray animals.
Our little shelter is housed in a very modest pre-fab facility, but it offers wonderful compassion and excellent care. The size of the facility requires that some dogs be housed in a separate, rural setting or in foster care.
I recently adopted a cat from the West Plains Regional Animal Shelter and discovered that staff at the shelter know the name of each animal and can talk freely about each animal's unique characteristics. very different from what I experienced when I adopted a cat from a large-city humane society. I was especially touched by a gray cat with paralyzed legs who had been fitted with a device that enabled him to run up and down the shelter hallway at will -- at great speed. He will probably be a permanent resident of the shelter, and he couldn't have seemed happier.
We are a community of just under 12,000 people in the Missouri Ozarks, and the overflowing of support for the animal-shelter competition was overwhelming. Lots of school children participated, including the Girl Scouts, and our local Chamber of Commerce was a member.
We have had a fund-raising campaign for several years in the hopes of building a new and improved facility. To win this competition would be a great thing for our community and would go miles and miles toward increasing the awareness throughout our area about the importance of animal ownership, responsibile care and compassion.
