PAWS4LIFE Joins National No More Homeless Pets Network
Pets in Rabun County now have an even stronger voice for animal welfare.
Rabun Paws4Life, Rabun County’s no-kill, open admission animal shelter, has earned recognition as a network partner by the the nation’s most successful animal welfare group: the Best Friends Animal Society of Kanab, Utah.
“Paws4Life is honored to join the Best Friends network,” said Jennifer Marcellino, chief executive officer of the organization. “This is an endorsement of our commitment to saving pets’ lives and advocating humane treatment for all animals.”
The Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Network includes more than 1,800 animal welfare organizations across the nation, 81 of them in Georgia. The goal is to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s animal shelters through collaboration and effective adoption, spay/neuter and intake prevention programs.
Network members must be actively working towards the Best Friends mission of No More Homeless Pets by operating an active pet adoption, spay/neuter or intake prevention program. They must be a registered nonprofit in good standing with the GuideStar Charity Check and must report monthly statistics through the national Shelter Animals Count database.
In 2016, Rabun Paws4Life took in 703 live animals. Nearly half—305 animals—were strays picked up by the shelter’s animal control officers. Nearly all the animals found safe homes: 408 were adopted from Paws4Life, while 275 were transferred to other no-kill shelters in the Southeast. The only deaths at the shelter were due to illness. In 2016, Paws4Life also provided free or low-cost sterilzation for 621 animals (327 dogs / 294 cats), and vaccinated 501 (388 dogs / 113 cats).
As a Best Friends partner, Rabun Paws4Life gains access to national pet adoption programs and professional development workshops, collaboration with other network members and opportunities for grants that support adoption, spay/neuter and intake prevention.
“Becoming a Best Friends partner gives Paws4Life access to resources to help with adoptions, animal training, health issues and shelter management,” said Brenda Nash, Paws4Life community outreach director.
An immediate benefit to becoming a Best Friends partner is that Paws4Life was eligible to apply for a $25,000 grant to expand the countywide free spay/neuter program. The application was submitted in mid-May with award announcements expected in August.
RABUN PAWS4LIFE www.rabunpaws4life.
Rabun Paws4Life is Georgia’s first no-kill, open-admission animal shelter that also provides animal control services. It is the only animal welfare organization in Rabun County. The nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization was created to protect companion animals from abuse, neglect and abandonment. It promotes pet adoptions through community partnerships, conducts educational programs in public schools and provides affordable spay/neuter services and vaccine clinics. Since its founding in November 2012, Rabun Paws4Life has saved the lives of more than 3,000 animals through adoption or transfer to other no-kill shelters.
BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY www.bestfriends.org
Best Friends Animal Society is the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the country with more than 1,600 animals housed on 3,000 acres in Kanab, Utah. The group became a household name in 2008 when they rescued 22 dogs from Michael Vick’s Bad Newz dogfighting kennel. Most of these dogs earned the Canine Good Citizen certificate from the American Kennel Club, and became therapy or service dogs or members of a loving family. “The Champions” is an inspirational documentary about the rescued pit bulls and the people who risked it all to save them.
SHELTER ANIMALS COUNT www.shelteranimalscount.org
Shelter Animals Count is a collaborative initiative formed to create and share a national database of shelter animal statistics, providing facts and enabling insights that can save lives. In 2016, the first year of operation, 4,143 animal shelters participated in the database. More than half of the participating shelters were located in the top 10 states. Georgia was fifth in the nation for the number of participating shelters, after California, Florida, Texas and New York.