Save the Pike County Humane Society auction Fund raiser event at American Legion on Sunday

SHOHOLA — Pike County Humane Society needs your help and your stuff. A Save the Pike County Humane Society Auction will be held on Sunday, Aug. 12, (drop off time 7 a.m.; viewing 11 a.m; bidding begins at 1 p.m.) at the American Legion Hall Post 139, 104 Route 2001, in Milford.
Due to the poor economy the donations and funds have decreased significantly, while the numbers of abandoned and abused animals have risen.
Director Barry Heim explained that, It is unfortunate that people are losing their homes due to bankruptcy, in the process they are leaving their dogs and cats behind with no one to care for them except us.
In the past few years we have seen a huge increase of sick, abandoned, starving, abused pets. Meanwhile, the state and counties have slashed their budgets, and reduced contributions. Donations and membership contribution revenues have dropped as well.
Founded in 1963 the Pike County Humane Society is going to be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year. We are proud of our 93.6 percent adoption rate for dogs over the past 5 years. We are a non-profit no kill shelter, with 100% of our income going to the care of the animals. The shelter is a 24 hour a day operation, 365 days a year. We care for over 1,500 animals per year and have placed over 8,000 into good homes over the past 14 years. We get calls in the middle of night from every municipality in Pike County, whether it s a lost dog, sick cats, we have taken care of abandoned horses, cows and even an ostridge. We don t turn away any animal in need.
The consequence of closing the Pike Humane Society would result in an huge increase in the population of abandoned dogs running wild, feral cats, disease, starvation, and finally euthanizing of hundreds of potential family pets.
Donations are unpredictable and a large majority of them come in at the end of the year. Our operating expenses for this year have exceeded income and we are urgently in need of funding to meet our obligations. We are exploring various long term solutions to increase cash flow, and decrease operating cost without sacrificing our main mission, which is care of the animals. However, we need to focus on our short term financial obligations to get to that point.