North Augusta Animal control working with rescue to empty shelter
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WJBF)- In North Augusta less and less stray animals are being put down. It’s thanks to a partnership between the city’s animal control and a local rescue.
The results of the partnership between the North Augusta Animal Shelter and Friends of North Augusta Animals (FONAA) is something many in the community thought could never be done-having a nearly completely empty shelter.
“And they’ve all been we’ve all come together as a team,” said Craig McBride, the Animal Control Officer in North Augusta.
The mission to empty the shelter started about 3 years ago when McBride, came on board. He partnered with FONAA, as well as other rescues like Molly’s Militia, Bully4You Rescue, and Project Freedom Ride, to reduce the number of stray animals that are put down.
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“We’ve had 203 last year and we’ve only had to put down around 20,” explained McBride.
As soon as an animal is brought to the shelter, they immediately get the word out on social media. Because of this, adoptions have soared.
“We take pictures of the dogs as they come in the front door. We’ve been able to send them to Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia. We had an airplane fly puppies out to Virginia. And they’ve all been good, we’ve all come together as a team,” McBride said.
After 5 days in the shelter, the animals have to be put down if an owner doesn’t come forward. It’s 14 days if they’re microchipped and not registered.
Dennis Briatico works with Friends of North Augusta Animals. He told NewsChannel 6. that since forming the partnership they have been able to save a lot of stray animals.
“The stat he (McBride) went over was amazing. But in the last 11 months, we’ve we’ve put down three dogs here and they’ve all been aggressive, not able to adopt out to a home. So we’ve basically saved every dog for a year now, that could be saved. And that’s amazing,” Briatico said.
Since McBride gave rescues full access to the shelter dogs, Briatico spends a lot of time with the ones waiting to be claimed or adopted.
“We come in, we read once a week to the dogs in the shelter, we post a video. We do a video for all of the shelter dogs that are here weekly,” he explained, “Getting the community involved is everything. And I will say that the community for the city of North Augusta has really stepped up to help us too. It’s been amazing.”
He posts video of himself reading to the dogs and said people see them and some have been adopted that way.
“It gives the opportunity, people to see dogs in the shelter and think about maybe maybe what does this dog look like in my home?” said Briatico.
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Briatico is proud of the work that the rescue and the animal shelter are doing.
“I never thought this would happen in my lifetime. I never thought this shelter would be to the point it is where we’re not really putting down any dogs. So it means the world to me. It means the world to me that my community is involved. It means the world to me that these other rescues are involved, because we’re taking something that I didn’t think could be done and we’re doing it in real time,” he said.
FONAA will be hosting the 5k Bunny Run Race or Walk on March 30th to raise money to continue its mission.
For that information and to learn how you can help from adopting and fostering, to donating needed items to the shelter, just go to their website.
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