By a rough estimate, the crowd that assembled Saturday afternoon at the Columbus-Lowndes Humane Society reached around 200 and featured all shapes, sizes, breeds, pedigrees and dispositions.
Then, of course, there were the pets, mostly dogs, along with a sure-enough scene-stealer, a 3-year-old Tennessee Walker horse name Oreo, who made a show of drinking sweet tea out of a plastic cup and, occasionally, nuzzling the more curious canines who ventured her way.
Saturday’s event was a “reunion” of animals who have been adopted from the facility. It is something director Karen Johnwick has been wanting to do for quite while.
“We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Johnwick said. “Nicole Fain and Carley Lancher deserve the credit. They put it all together, got it organized. I’d say it’s been a pretty successful first reunion.”
Johnwick said the idea of a reunion was a means to call attention to the beautiful new $1.1 million Humane Society facility, which opened 11 months ago. There were plenty of activities, from a free pet photo booth to a trick contest to a pet-owner look-alike competition. Staff and volunteers used the event to show off the facility and encourage community support. Johnwick said roughly $30,000 is still owed on the facility. And, of course, donations are always welcome.
At any given time, the facility is home to bout 70 dogs and 50 cats, all in need of a home.
“Our adoption rate is 80 percent, which is as good as you’ll find anywhere,” Johnwick said.
A look around at all the dogs who participated in the reunion, and it’s easy to see why.
“Really, you can find just about anything you’re looking for here, from purebreds to mixes, puppies, older dogs, dogs that are house-broken and trained,” Johnwick said.
And sometimes, you can even find a horse, which is how it was that Linda Coch of West Point happened to acquire Oreo.
“He was abandoned here in Lowndes County and the Humane Society found a foster for him,” Coch said. “But the foster family was in the Air Force and that’s when I took him in. I’ve got eight horses now and Oreo has fit in just great. As you can see, not much bothers him.”
Linda Wood and her Australian shepherd-border collie mix Reagan took home the prize in the trick competition. Wood adopted Reagan two years ago, but she has been a firm believer in pet adoption long before.
“We had adopted another dog earlier, Mollie, and she was the love of my life.
Wood said she has never regretted the decision to adopt.
“Really, I can’t think of a good reason why you wouldn’t.” she said.
Pet ownership in the U.S. has more than tripled from the 1970s, when approximately 67 million households had pets, to 2012, when there were 164 million who owned pets. While there is no data on how many pets are adopted from shelters, groups such as Humane Society of the United States has put together some rough estimates. By its estimation, six to eight million dogs and cats enter the approximately 3,5000 animal shelters in the U.S. Of that number, between three and four million are adopted each year. While the euthanization rate has dropped steadily each year, still roughly 2.7 million dogs and cats are euthanized each year.
It is a fate none of the tail-waggers who gathered for Saturday’s reunion had to face, fortunately.
That alone, was reason to celebrate. Woof. Woof.
Slim Smith is a columnist and editorial writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected]
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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