Animal rescuers catch a break
Aug. 10—GRANGEVILLE — What seemed an impossibility nine years ago to a small volunteer group of animal rescuers with no money, no shelter, no land and no clear path forward is finally becoming a solid reality.
The Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) of Idaho County recently announced the donation of an acre and a half of property on the outskirts of Grangeville where members plan to eventually build a shelter and storage area for cats and dogs in need of a home.
"We're making progress," said Karin Vetter, vice-president of ARF.
"We're pretty excited about that," added Terri Tackett, president of the organization.
ARF will hold a land acquisition celebration Aug. 24 at the Senior Citizen Center on the Grangeville truck route beginning at 5:30 p.m. with a social hour and a program starting at 6 p.m. Wine, beer and cake will be available with music by the Old Time Fiddlers.
Tackett said Ray and Madelyn Anderson, owners of Anderson Aeromotive in Grangeville and their daughter and son-in-law, Lindsay and Ryan Denuit, recently donated the land, clearing the way for ARF to acquire more grants and donations toward the goal of building a shelter, estimated at $600,000. That cost would include all the infrastructure and utilities needed to operate a shelter.
The property lies north of the truck route diagonally across the road from the Senior Citizen Center within the city's area of impact — a location Vetter and Tackett said would be easy for people to reach but far enough out not to be a disturbance to city residents.
The progress to this point has been fairly rapid, despite starting with little but dreams of finding ways to help feral and abandoned companion animals. ARF was organized in 2014 with a small band of volunteers who took in stray and abandoned animals and worked mostly from their homes. Besides rescues, the group also provides trap, neuter-spay, vaccinate and return programs; a spay and neuter voucher program; transfers to larger shelters in Spokane and McCall and pet medical financial assistance.
But the group didn't start working on a plan to build a shelter until 2020.
"What we learned in the interim," Tackett said, "is that we were not going to be able to raise the funds or get the support unless we could show benefits to the community by running a shelter program."
"We had to prove that we had the capacity to help animals," Vetter added.
As of this month, since 2000 ARF said it has supplied 824 vaccinate, spay and neuter programs; 1,143 transfers; 206 adoptions and rehousings; 7,184 pounds of dry food and 588 cases of pet food.
The new location will also be close enough to the future Idaho County Sheriff's Office near the Idaho County airport that law enforcement officials who come into possession of a stray or abandoned animal can use the building to house the animal, the women said.
Tackett said the next step will be to get an architectural scheme of a shelter.
"Our current strategic plan was to acquire land this year," she said. "We thought we'd have to purchase it but because of Ray and Madelyn Anderson's generosity" that goal was accomplished.
The next part of the strategic plan is to develop the infrastructure by the end of 2024.
"Following that will be the building of the shelter," she said. "We're going to be working extremely hard in the next year to raise the funds for building the shelter. We have faith enough through grants and donations to get the infrastructure in.... We also believe, because we have the land, people will be more willing to donate."
Anyone wishing more information about ARF may visit the group's website at: arfgrangeville.org/
Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.
