Recently we had someone ask why our adoption fees were so much higher than many county-run shelters. While I cannot speak for all shelters, attached is the 2018 public shelter report from Raleigh which tells what each county-run shelter in NC operating expenses were.
We are an all-volunteer 501c3 non-profit rescue that relies on donations and fundraisers to take care of the animals in our rescue. Most of the animals we take in are in dire need of veterinary care. Just recently we took in a dog with a tumour that needed to be removed and was heartworm positive. So they will need treatment once she has taken her antibiotics for a month, a female shep mix that was not only pregnant but heartworm positive, a dog with a shotgun hole in his leg, a dog on death’s door that spent two weeks in intensive care and two dogs with chemical burns down their backs. The list is long but we feel that as a rescue, this is our main purpose. We do get some dogs that are surrendered to us that may not be in as serious physical need, but many times they are in emotional need. Recently we took in a four-month-old pup who goes in his crate to sleep but then acts like someone is going to hurt him when you go towards the crate. We work through these issues too to help these animals gain trust in humans again. We take in many either directly from owners or strays and hold the appropriate time to try and help keep the dogs from ending up at our local shelter, which has a certain amount of kennels and cannot continue to take dogs in once full, which in turn leads to them euthanizing dogs.
We are very fortunate that our county shelter has a very generous budget, along with a full-time veterinarian and a full-time vet tech. I have attached the 2018 public records of all NC shelters and you can go to Cleveland County to see the operating expenses there (2019 should be out by the end of this month). CCAS had operating expenses in 2018 of $1,148,369.00 according to the state records and it has increased since. We are very grateful our county is putting forth such an effort to help the animals that end up at the shelter and has the ability to do so.
As a rescue, we must take our dogs to the veterinarians like everyone else, pay whatever needs to be paid and if you follow us, you also know we take our dogs to specialists when needed. We do whatever is needed for them. We have had veterinary bills for one dog be up in the thousands. Our adoption fee is the same for each dog no matter how much was spent on them. We do tons of fundraisers throughout the year and we are fortunate to have supporters who believe in as we do that all lives matter, and contribute to our cause.
Out of 40 dogs currently in our rescue (currently, we have had over 50 at one time), 31 are in homes with fosters, where we also know if they are crate trained, house trained, dog-friendly, cat-friendly, kid-friendly and leash trained, etc. The nine in rescue boarding are also dog tested, have playtime with other dogs, work on their leash training, have a schedule to work on kennel training and have a trainer available if needed.
We have an awesome adoption coordinator who, on her own time and dime, goes over applications, checks vet references, does home visits and meets and greets to make sure the family and the dog are a match. We strongly feel most of the dogs we take in have gone through enough, whether it be physical or mental suffering and we want to do our best to find the closest to perfect home for each and every one of them.
Our dogs are with us until they find the perfect home. We do not euthanize any of our dogs unless they are “irremediably suffering, or rigorously defined.” We furnish everything for our dogs, give them medicine if needed (we have seizure, diabetic, and hospice dogs all on different meds), food, heartworm preventive, and whatever is needed until they find their forever home.
Hope this helps understand what we do, our passion to save lives… because all lives truly do matter.
