CONTACT:
Grayson County Humane Society
213 E. William Thomason Byway,
Leitchfield, KY 42754
Call 270-230-8839
email: [email protected]
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/KY103.html
The Grayson County Humane Society/SPCA was formed to try and place adoptable animals located at the animal shelter in Leitchfield, Kentucky. We are comprised completely of volunteers who donate their time, money and resources. Some of the animals on this website are in foster care, while most are still located at the shelter. Those located at the shelter have an extremely limited amount of time and are marked URGENT! Please consider giving one of these animals a home.
Most of the funding for this shelter comes directly out of the pockets of the four main volunteers (and two occasional volunteers) that have worked non-stop for the last four-and-a-half years to try and place adoptable animals that end up at the Leitchfield City Animal Shelter. As they are seldom reimbursed, they are constantly watching their budget and they DO NOT spend money foolishly. Much of the money they have goes towards covering medical bills and the regularly-scheduled long-distance transports that they willingly make to such faraway places as Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and sometimes even Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
This amazingly dedicated group has managed to drastically reduce the euthanasia rate at the shelter. However, THEY ARE STILL CONSIDERED A KILL SHELTER. In a town of approximately 6,500 people, this shelter takes in almost 1,000 total cats and dogs per year - that might not seem like a lot compared to some shelters, but it's an OVERWHELMING number for the volunteers to manage, along with ALL of the other shelter duties. On average, only a dozen or so of these pets are reclaimed per year, two cats are adopted per month, and one dog is adopted per week. The rest simply MUST be rescued or euthanized.
One of the volunteers recently described their current situation best. "We can't continue to be low kill if we are full. We're not asking rescues to take dogs or cats that have issues or need assistance getting over life in the shelter or that don't get along with other dogs, cats, and/or small children. We're asking them to take the no-big-problems dogs or cats, while we continue to try to find the right home for the others."
Rescuing from this shelter is a GREAT DEAL on MANY levels. Not only can transport often be arranged to your front door (as mentioned above), but vetting costs are relatively low and reimbursement is never asked for anything beyond what is expended for such costs. Current vetting costs are:
Cat neuter - $35
Cat spay - $40
Dog neuter - $45
Dog spay - $50
Rabies vaccine - $6.50
"Puppy" vaccines - $3
Cat and dog combo viral vaccines - $2.50
Bordetella vaccine - $5
HW, Lyme, and Erlichia test - $15 for all three, if done by the Grayson volunteers
FeLV/FIV test - $15 for both, if done by the Grayson volunteers
Health certificate - $12-$25, depending on the vet used
Everything possible is also done to minimize the spread of disease or illness in this pound. Dogs are held in their run for 10 days after the arrive at the shelter. If they appear to be healthy for those 10 days and after they receive their shots and wormer, then they can go play in one of the three fenced-in fields while their kennel is being cleaned. Puppies DO NOT leave their run or touch the ground ANYWHERE until they have had their entire series of puppy vaccines; they are also wormed several times after they arrive. The volunteers use bleach foot baths and hand washing. They also have different boots to wear in the puppy runs than in the rest of the facility and they use a combination of bleach sanitizing days and trifectant sanitizing days.
The Grayson volunteers will also test any animal you're interested in rescuing or adopting with other dogs, cats, kids, food - WHATEVER IT TAKES to get the information you need to decide to pull the pet. They will ALWAYS go the extra mile to save these precious furbabes. JUST ASK!!!
So how can you help?
The Grayson County Humane Society's Wish List:
Doghouses (any insulated plastic kind that can be cleaned and sanitized easily)
Blankets - old or new
Towels - old or new
Sheets - old or new as they use them to wrap the wire grates in the cat cages
Smallest-size flat litter boxes
Small covered litter boxes
Any kind of canned cat food
Metal pails for dog water
Transport crates/carriers (because of all the transports they do, Grayson's are nearing a state of complete disrepair)
Kuranda beds
(http://www.kuranda.com/catalog/donate_landing.php?intShelte
rID=672)
Collars and leashes
Such items can be sent/shipped to:
Grayson County Humane Society/SPCA
213 East William Thomason Byway
Leitchfield, KY 42754
Monetary donations in ANY amount can be mailed to the same address as listed above. If you need a receipt, please just ask for one. There is also a Paypal button on Grayson's Petfinder web site at http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/KY103.html. If you note what you'd like your donation to be used for, they will make sure that ALL such directed donations are used for exactly what the giver intended it to be used for. If you'd like to make a donation in honor of someone, a Grayson volunteer will send an acknowledgement card to that person, if you provide the necessary information.
