2 groups, city form dog plan

Team-up would find pets homes

NWA Media/ANDY SHUPE - Bill King, director of Go East, Young Dog, visits with a trio of Huskies that are soon bound for new owners on the East Coast Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014, at the organization's facility in Berryville. Go East, Young Dog recently merged with the Good Shepherd Humane Society. The organization handles all stray, lost or abandoned dogs for Berryville and coordinates adoptions for them after with new owners in an eastern state having provided vaccinations, spay or neuter, de-worming and socialization services. So far they’ve helped more than 600 dogs find homes.
NWA Media/ANDY SHUPE - Bill King, director of Go East, Young Dog, visits with a trio of Huskies that are soon bound for new owners on the East Coast Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014, at the organization's facility in Berryville. Go East, Young Dog recently merged with the Good Shepherd Humane Society. The organization handles all stray, lost or abandoned dogs for Berryville and coordinates adoptions for them after with new owners in an eastern state having provided vaccinations, spay or neuter, de-worming and socialization services. So far they’ve helped more than 600 dogs find homes.

BERRYVILLE -- Two nonprofit organizations plan to partner with Berryville in 2015 to ensure the better treatment of animals.

Go East, Young Dog, a Berryville nonprofit that specializes in out-of-state adoptions for shelter animals, and Good Shepherd Humane Society in Eureka Springs will join efforts to ensure the health of abandoned dogs and find permanent homes for them.

The partnership is contingent on raising $35,000 by Jan. 31, based on a Dec. 18 vote by the membership of Good Shepherd.

"Go East has been able to adopt out dogs that might otherwise be euthanized," said Dan Bennett, president of the board of directors for Good Shepherd. "The humane society has been in Carroll County for 40 years, and we couldn't say no [to the arrangement].

"We want to try it, see what we can do to make it happen."

If secured, it would be the first partnership of its kind between public and private entities for Carroll County.

The move would mean hiring additional help to manage the sharp influx of dogs from Go East, Young Dog to the humane society and coordinating an average of 30-35 out-of-state adoptions each month. Previously, Berryville dogs were sent to Go East, Young Dog, and Berryville cats were sent to Good Shepherd.

Bill King, director of Go East, Young Dog, began the organization in 2011 when he stepped down from his position as president of the board of directors for Good Shepherd. His goal was to take on responsibility for the large number of dogs that filled the city shelter.

"Seeing the shelter full all the time and animals being turned away made me question whether we were meeting our mission [at Good Shepherd]," King said. "We had no government-sponsored animal facility at the time, and it was the only place in the county to deal with an excess animal problem.

"That's thousands of animals turned away over time."

The number of animals was more than the city could handle with only one animal control staff member, a limited budget, and the ability to care for only four or five animals at a time, and many dogs were being euthanized.

"We have one person to do enforcement and run the kennel," said Tim McKinney, mayor of Berryville. "Before Bill set up Go East, we tried to adopt out what we could, but we didn't have the structure to do it full time, and from time to time we had to euthanize animals."

Since opening its doors, Go East, Young Dog has secured adoptions for approximately 600 dogs with families in the nation's northeast.

"It works well for us because we don't have to operate the kennel, and we can focus more on field enforcement," McKinney said. "Meanwhile, animals have a place to be taken care of."

King collaborated with Diane Ferguson of Unconditional Love Pet Rescue of Boone County for a couple of years to learn the ropes of managing safe and successful out-of-state adoptions.

Ferguson has coordinated more than 2,000 adoptions through her outreach.

In 2011, McKinney donated the city animal facility to Go East, Young Dog in exchange for King taking in more animals for the city.

At Go East, King houses approximately 50 dogs at a time while listing them on adoption sites, such as Adopt-a-Pet and PetFinder, and arranging all procedures necessary for their certificates of health.

"All the dogs that adopt out are spayed or neutered before they go," King said. "No animals go out and reproduce; they're wormed several times and receive vaccinations, rabies shots and [are] taken to a veterinarian for a checkup to receive a health certificate."

He also socializes the animals.

"Socializing is a big part of being adopted," Bennett said, emphasizing that the humane society would continue to provide that service in the event of the partnership. "Some animals we get may have never really known people as caregivers, at least not for a long time.

"It makes it more successful for everybody, and it's heartwarming when that happens."

Potential pet owners must go through an application and interview process that requires them to provide employer and personal references and list the veterinarians they plan to use for their new canines.

"If it seems like a good home, a good match for the dog, they pay an adoption fee, receive the health certificate and we put the dog on a transport," King said. "It makes for a lot of happy people, and the dogs really thrive in their new environment."

Go East uses the Got Orphans transport service, which can carry up to 80 dogs at a time.

On the rare occasion when an adoption doesn't work out the way both parties hoped, Go East steps in to place the dog in a foster home until it can find a suitable second home for the animal.

Out of the nearly 600 dogs adopted through Go East, only five have been in need of that service.

The time crunch involved in securing funding for the new partnership is the result of King's attempt to keep the operation going on his own -- something he's unable to handle without more resources.

Berryville stepped up to strengthen that investment as part of new standards for the fair treatment of animals in the city, which includes an ordinance against tethers and cable tethers. Licensing fees for residents with neutered and spayed animals will have significantly reduced rates.

"There's just so many stray and unwanted dogs and cats in the county," Bennett said. "If we can adopt animals, we will continue the mission of the humane society and expand to help even more animals."

NW News on 12/28/2014

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