We recently reached out to Needy Paws in Clarksville and asked them what we, as a group, could do to help them and this is their response. While this shelter isn’t specific to Russellville, 1) we thought some of you might want to take up the mantle and help them as well, and/or 2) the things mentioned here, could help our own local shelter as well.
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Okay, thank you! I saw your message on the Needy Paws account and was trying to find the group through my personal so I could join 😅
So outside of volunteering, we’d love to have some more dog fosters set up for dogs that just need a break from the kennel life. It wouldn’t need to be long term but just for those dogs that are showing signs of stress and going kennel crazy, to essentially have a “reset button”.
I’d love to get programs going that offer free/reduced cost microchip and vaccine clinics. The issue we’ve had with this is getting a local veterinarian to donate their time for something like this. If anyone knows of a vet that would be willing to do something like that for the community (Needy Paws would purchase the microchips/vaccines of course) that would be amazing.
We offer spay/neuter vouchers for residents of Johnson/Pope counties and issue out alot but the usage rate is only 40%. Im working on getting more information from the community as to why the vouchers aren’t being used but we could potentially use a few volunteers to assist with, for example, if it’s an elderly resident that can’t drive their animal to the vet or if they’re working several jobs and don’t have the time to get the animal to or from the vet.
Aside from what’s been mentioned above if we have members of the community that can grant write or have experience planning and executing fundraisers we could really use it. The staff and I’s time is mainly dedicated to the day to day operations and we don’t have much time outside of that to do fundraising or grants. The property is in need of a little TLC/repairs but the money in the bank is going towards the animals (as it should) but there’s more going out than coming in, if you catch my drift.
I hope this helps some! Thank you for starting this group!
