Animals get new advocate in American Animal Alliance

Animals at the mercy of their human caretakers have a new friend in the American Animal Alliance, a local organization, which creates a wide ranging solution to animal welfare problems in Harrison County. The nonprofit organization helps support and coordinate efforts among shelters and adoption agencies in the area.

“We specifically formed American Animal Alliance to address struggles we are seeing in our local animal shelters,” said Jodi Henry of the Alliance. “Their individual roles and responsibilities may be confusing to the public. For instance, people may mistakenly call the dog pound when there are cats involved. Or they may call the dog pound for an animal in distress, neither of those situations are things the dog pound can handle. They’re chiefly dealing with stray or loose dogs.”

Henry said the Harrison County Humane Society halted operations a few years ago until a recent revival. “We have had several really difficult hardship cases in recent years that pointed up the need for people to do more to help," she said. "There was a livestock case and some others involving a lot of animals and the humane society has been sort of restarted. But they have never had a shelter. It has always been foster based. So if you have a situation where there are seven animals or 13 animals, it creates a tough scenario where you’re looking for foster homes for them without knowing their history. Are they able to get along with other animals or children? You don’t know if they’ve had proper care or if they are aggressive.” The Alliance will help fill that gap.

American Animal Alliance intends to help organizations already in place, helping foster collaborations, while also educating the public through school and 4-H programs and the fair board, Henry said. “We provide a greater education in terms of which agency does what, to help people understand why the dog pound doesn’t take cats or why the humane society can’t help with feral cats.” 

American Animal Alliance recently acquired a property in Cadiz with a building that will help with foster transfers. The building was in some need of repair, and a heating unit has been donated and plumbing issues are being addressed. A goal or raising $50,000 has been set. Donations may be made by following the link at americananimalalliance.org. 

While there remains much to do, Henry said she expected the structure to be usable in November. Ongoing projects include the addition of kennel runs and the ability to separate dogs and cats. 

Still, the facility will not provide longterm sheltering. “”It’s an intake facility. When we have an emergency situation come up, we have some place safe and warm for animals until temporary foster homes can be found.”

Henry said the need for a support organization became apparent a few years ago when a home in Jewett was found to be crowded with sick and deceased animals. “There were 45 dead animals found there, with 13 still alive. It was really horrible, absolutely heartbreaking. Then foster homes had to be found for those 13 remaining animals and that’s hard when they are infested with parasites and you don’t know any history. American Animal Alliance is here to provide support so that hopefully that kind of thing won’t happen again.” Two dogs from the tragedy still need permanent homes. 

The group has an ambitious list of future projects and goals, including helping Humane Society of Harrison County with sponsorship for a new HVAC system, aiding in the collection of donated coolers for housing for stray cats this winter from businesses that use and discard them, working with schools to offer volunteer opportunities that will count towards community service for students, and several other initiatives.

Long term, Henry said the Alliance is a concept that will hopefully spread to surrounding counties. Learn more at the website.