Howard is PALS Person of the Month
Roxie Howard is a print and graphic services specialist at Labette Community College. She helps Proud Animal Lovers Shelter by printing our fl yers, brochures and anything else we may need. When asked why she is willing to do that, she replied, “I’m not good at talking about myself. I guess I would say that I’m just an animal lover in general and I love what PALS does and stands for and how much the people in charge genuinely care about the animals.
If I had the space and money I would have soooo many pets but right now two dogs, two cats, 12 chickens, three kids and one husband is enough to take care of.” Roxie, we sincerely appreciate all you do and are happy to honor you as our PALS Person of the Month. Because we do care so much about our animals at PALS, we are very concerned about recent events. One of our board members, who is so modest she doesn’t want her name mentioned, gave me permission to share what she wrote because it eloquently refl ects how our board members are feeling. “19 ... 19 beautiful little souls. Dumped like garbage in the heat at PALS in less than 48 hours. We were already overwhelmed.
When you hear someone say, ‘PALS is doing another fundraiser?’ Tell them this is why. We need help. Monetary and volunteers. We desperately need people to help take care of all these animals. No more excuses. No more, ‘Oh, I just can’t because I’d want to take them all home with me.’ Come on, all you animal lovers, I challenge you to volunteer for just one shift each week. Anybody?” That was written after 12 kittens, a mama cat and six puppies were dumped at the shelter.
Our current numbers are 37 dogs and 23 cats. We do not have one empty kennel, which means we cannot take in other animals who may need our help. It means we have no room to quarantine our intakes. It means our volunteers and staff are putting in many extra hours and are drained. It means that the spay/neuter bills for these 19 may be several thousand dollars.
The generous person who created and is funding the lowcost, low-income spay/neuter program at PALS did so to reduce the pet population and keep things like this from happening. For only $10 a low-income family can get their pet spayed or neutered, microchipped and vaccinated for rabies and parvo. (Cats are only vaccinated for rabies.)
Anyone willing to drive to Pittsburg can get their cat or dog spayed or neutered at Pawprints on the Heartland for $40. To make an appointment, please call 620-232-0907. If people would spay/neuter their pets, PALS and every other shelter in the area would not be in the situation we are in.
In June, 19 dogs came into the shelter and only fi ve went out. Sixteen cats arrived and eight were adopted. Canine parvovirus is prevalent in this area right now. If your dog is vomiting or having bloody diarrhea, it needs veterinary care immediately. The parvo fatality rate in puppies can be as high as 80%. We are planning to have another rummage sale in September. We need your support. We need volunteers. We need people to preach “spay/neuter.” And if you hear someone talking about dumping their animals, please advise them that it is against Kansas laws and we do have surveillance cameras. Thank you so much for your help
