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Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation is a 501(c)(3) Non-profit organization established to introduce and promote programs to improve animal welfare in Blount County Tennessee and the surrounding areas of the Great Smoky Mountains.
With an average of 3-4 million unwanted, abused and neglected animals in the United States every year, it is our job to help all of these animals by providing services for care, along with introducing programs and working along side other organizations that are committed to addressing the welfare of all animals, wild or domestic, that are in our community.Music:
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Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation First Annual FUR BALL a Resounding Success!!! We are thrilled to report that the Fur Ball, held this past Saturday night, was an unprecedented success!! Royal Oaks was packed with people, adoptable dogs and big hair, courtesy of The Bouffants. A great time was had by all and over $22,000 was raised for our new Blount County Animal Center!Thank you to everyone who made this possible. We couldn't have done it without the support and guidance of our sponsors, volunteers, members, and those wonderful folks who bought tickets to attend. To see photos of the merriment, please visit the site of our official photographer, V.F. Digital Photography - www.vfdigitalphotography.com Once there, click "Online Proofing" and then select "Fur Ball for SMACF". www.smokymountainanimalcare.org
Books:
Blessing of the Animals
Saturday, April 19th Maryville First United Methodist Church on Montvale Station Road
Want to Thank the Maryville First United Methodist Church for putting on this great event. And want to thank all of you who braved the rain to come out. The sun did break through for the blessing of the animals. But it was a threatening day. Again a BIG Thank You to all those who came!Heroes:
People have wondered how no-kill animal rescue groups can work with the government to build a full facility animal shelter, which by definition would have to take all animals in. This means for incoming animals, room would have to be gotten by adopting, fostering, or at the last recourse, euthanizing dogs and cats and other companion animals.
None of us in rescue want to see the latter happen. Many of us in rescue believe by working with the government and not against it, we can help reduce the number of animals put in this last category. We in rescue know there are not enough homes for fostering all the unwanted animals in Blount County. But we do have other resources. We want to see animals moved to other areas where there are shortages of adoptable dogs and cats, and there are higher adoption rates. We are pushing spay and neuter and will require all adopted animals to be altered before leaving the shelter. We believe in using volunteers to socialize the animals, and even give them basic obedience training, thus helping with the animals' adoptability. And many of the programs we want to see initiated will require the help of many volunteers. We will need all the rescue groups working together.We want to create a real animal center, not just a pound. We want to develop a place that people come to find that new pet. We want to have educational programs to help people deal with problems with their animal, and hopefully prevent these animals from being surrendered to the shelter.By being an integral part of the shelter, we hope to prevent it from turning into a pound. With input to the government, we hope to see that all the people working directly with the animals, care about them, so that there will never be abuse by employees as has been reported in many animal shelters across the country. We also want to see friendly, helpful staff assisting people to help them find the right animal for their home, thus increasing adoption rates, and reducing return surrenders. We do not want to drive off prospective new pet owners, on the contrary, we want a warm fun, inviting atmosphere so that customers will enjoy their visit, and spread the word about the joys of a successful pet adoption.These are all great ideas that we want to work on whether we are a full facility or limited intake, "no-kill" shelters, but there is another aspect of an animal shelter that we can only take care of with the blessing of the government. That is "animal control." I have read others criticizing "animal control." Maybe they have never dealt with animals running loose and destroying their property, terrorizing their family, or killing or maiming their own animals. This is what Blount Countians deal with every day. These people have been coming to the Animal Control Commission Meetings with pictures of their dead livestock, with photos and doctor bills from attacks on themselves and their pets. This is a very important issue in Blount County that must be managed in a lawful matter. These people have the right to be protected from destructive animals.For these cases, we must have a government approved facility that is capable of holding animals until the courts settle the charges, whether from dogs roaming loose, to pets causing property damage, to quarantining animal for possible rabies, or to injury of people or pets by vicious dogs. Even if an animal is deemed vicious, their owner still has the legal right to go to court and try to exonerate the animal, and that will take time. And during this time the animals will need to be humanely restrained. (And a limited-intake shelter cannot afford to handle these cases, due to space requirements and lawful constraints.) So lets work together with Blount County government to see that a facility is built that answers to us, who do care about the animals, and also protects the rights of the citizens of our county.Terry