HALT (Not PETA)

[Nottawayfer]

As some of you know, I live in Kingman, Arizona. There are good people here, but there are a lot of people who don't do much to advance their life-style. There is a HUGE meth problem here, and you can drive down one area of town and see lack of pride in people's homes.

It's a good ole boy town with growing pains. You can call someone with a business to help you out and they will because you go way back and they won't charge you. But on the other hand, you have the "welfare will take care of me" mentality.

Anyway, to get on with my story. A kitty was dropped off in our yard. This is the second time this has happened in six months. We go outside only to hear a little kitty (3-4 months) meowing of starvation. We take them in. but our dogs have never liked them. They try to bite them. So we can't keep them. The first one I took to the animal shelter. I was sad to do it, but I didn't know how else to do it. We put signs up for a found cat, but we get no replies.

Since the first kitty, we found an organization called HALT who will take in limited animals without euthanizing them. We took kitty #2 there today. They have limited, but clean facilities. They asked us to pay $5 for the immunication of the cat, which we were glad to do (and donated more above that because we thought they were running a good organization). They require immunization before the animals can be sent to any other place to be adopted since the major amount of rescue animals created by Hurricane Katrina.

This organization is just a local group of people who care about keeping animals alive. I really believe in keeping them alive to place in a good home. Right now, animals are taken as far as southern California to be placed in homes.

The people in our area have not supported this organization because the mentality of most here is that they all want a dog and then keep in chained up in a yard with 3 or more other dogs that ended up being unwanted. It is sad to see so much of this here. Because of this, HALT has a hard time finding any who can provide foster homes for these animals. They have little support to take care of the needs of the animals.

They are trying to convince the County to pass a mandatory spay/neuter law, but they are not having very good success. Right now in our city, we have a whopping 81% euthanization of unwanted animals. The US average is 58% (still high).

They have a membership of $10 per year to help them with their needs. I don't know how they can survive on that personally. They also ask for people willing to volunteer time to help with the kennels they have and help socialize the pets so they can be adopted more easily. Hubby and I decided to help socialization of animals.

Their wish list is to build a sanctuary for holding stray and abandonded pets for extended periods of time. Our local city shelter built 40 units in 1975 and has never increased that amount. Yet there are an increasing amount of animals as the population grows here. Right now our city limits is about 25,000, but it is predicted to grow to over 100,000 in ten years. I belive it with the building I see here.

I really belive they are providing a good service to animals and the community.

They put up animals for adoption on petfinder.com and work with other organizations in the state to adopt animals out.

I just felt compelled to toss this out there for anyone who is interested to donate. If you are, you can go to this website: www.haltaz.org. There is a donation page there along with other information about this organization.

Thanks for lending an ear.

Love,

WayferNot!

[Belle]

Breaks my heart WN!

I wonder if they know that most AKC Breed Clubs also have Rescue Organizations and they will take in and relocate their breed. The Border Terrier Club of America even takes in identified Border Terrier Mix dogs. I imagine other breed clubs do as well.

I'll bookmark the page and make a donation after I see how much is left in my Christmas Present Budget. :)

[Nottawayfer]

Thanks Belle! You're a doll!