All schools in Upshur County will close at 1 p.m. today. All B-UHS sporting events today are canceled.

While a handful of cats and dogs were transported to rescue agencies or their 'furever' homes this week, Buddy, a young, healthy and playful pointer mix, remains the longest resident at the Lewis-Upshur Animal Control Facility. Find him on LUAC's website at www.upshuranimalcontrol.org.

LUV 4 Animals facilitates pet rescues, adoptions by footing the bill for surgeries

BUCKHANNON – Crisis averted: The Lewis-Upshur Animal Control Facility again reached full capacity this Monday, but LUV 4 Animals didn’t waste time jumping in to help connect animals with ‘fur-ever’ homes and no-kill rescue shelters.

The nonprofit organization successfully worked with LUAC to help place animals with rescues and adopters.

When LUAC reached full capacity Monday, Aug. 25, LUV 4 Animals published a post on their Facebook page offering to pay for 10 animals this week to be spayed or neutered. Luv 4 Animals said they would pay $75 to rescues or adopters to spay or neuter a dog and $50 to spay or neuter a cat.

President of LUV 4 Animals Desiree Poling said the nonprofit had to limit how many animals they could foot the bill for because they didn’t know how many people would take them up on that offer.

“We are a strictly donation-based service and we had to make sure we had enough funds to cover our promises,” Poling said. “So far, we did have a rescue take six dogs, and three cats this week, so we were able to honor nine of those so far.”

She said LUV 4 Animals typically offers this service twice a month, but since the facility reached capacity they decided to go ahead and offer a special deal.

“What we typically do is about two animals a month – we will go ahead and get them spayed or neutered just to make them more appealing to rescues who might not have the money to pull an animal, or a little easier for people in the community to adopt if they’re a little bit cheaper, because it’s $75 to adopt a dog that is not neutered and it’s $30 to adopt a dog that is,” Poling said.

“It’s the same thing with cats,” she added. “It’s only $10 for a cat if they’re already spayed or neutered.”

Jan Cochran, manager of the Lewis-Upshur Animal Control Facility, said paying to have the animals fixed can make it easier on adopters and no-kill rescue shelters.

“I think it went great because we work with the rescue organizations all the time, but since LUV 4 Animals offered to sponsor the spay, that helps the rescue organization not take all the expense on at once when they get the animal,” Cochran said.

Poling said when LUV 4 Animals pays for the operation, the rescue or adopter can choose whichever veterinarian they prefer as long as the procedure is done within 30 days.

“We do this two times a month anyways, and I think anytime there’s somebody who’s wanting to adopt and that cost might be an issue for them, they can always reach out to our page and say, ‘I’m just in love with this animal,’ and if the thing is just the adoption cost in the moment, more than likely, if we have the funding , we’d be willing to help out,” Poling said.

Cochran said this summer has been pretty busy and the facility can feel like a revolving door for new dogs.

“The day before yesterday, we sent out those six dogs to the rescue, and that same day four more walked through the door,” Cochran said. “Thankfully, three of them have been picked up by their owners, but it’s just a revolving door here.”

Poling said the organization is hoping to offer something similar to this special again soon, as long as they get the funding.

Cochran added that a recent problem the facility has experienced is a lack of animals with tags on their collars. She encourage pet owners to outfit their animals with tags attached to the collar that list the pet’s name and owner’s contact information.

“People will see the animal and be afraid it will get hit by a car so they bring it to us or call animal control and sometimes people bring dogs to us and the owners don’t see their animal on our website site until after we close and then the animal has to stay overnight and the owner has to pay $30 to get the dog back,” Cochran said. “Most of the time if people see a tag they’ll call you (the owner), rather than us so you can get your animal back sooner.”

LUV 4 Animals takes applications for volunteers, drivers and donations; simply message them on their Facebook page at ‘LUV 4 Animals.’

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