Week of 5/26/13 Humane Happenings

Chaco

The City of TorC recently held its first Annual Spring Dog Fair. From the number of dogs attending and the comments heard, it was an obvious success! The Mayor of TorC was available throughout the event, meeting with folks interested in discussing animal welfare issues and in the current Animal Control Ordinance. Our Sierra County Humane Society booth was also well attended. Thank you, everyone, for helping make this event the success that it was.

From comments heard at the Dog Fair and elsewhere in town recently, there is obviously some confusion regarding the Sierra County Humane Society Spay-a-Stray program versus the Trap-Neuter-Return Program (T-N-R) that is erroneously mentioned as a locally unknown program.

The SCHS Spay-a-Stray program and Trap-Neuter-Return program are one and the same. Our hard-working non-profit animal welfare organization took the lead and implemented the program in Sierra County in the mid-90’s – about 20 years ago. The SCHS Spay-a-Stray program – as we call it locally - was tailored from the then-very-new T-N-R program advocated by the national organization “Alley Cats Allies”. Alley Cats Allies is dedicated to advocating humane and non-lethal methods of reducing cat population in response to Animal Control’s known tradition of a policy of systematic extermination. Killing stay and feral cats at Taxpayers expense does not effectively control cat population growth. It is also very costly.

Paws&Claws Thrift Shoppe generates the funds to cover the costs of the program locally. For more information on the program nationwide, visit www.alleycat.org. Interested in helping us keep the program available in Sierra County? Donate through our Paypal account on our web site at www.DesertHavenAnimalRefuge.com . You can also send your tax-deductible contribution to: The Sierra County Humane Society, Inc. at POB 638, Williamsburg, NM 87942.

This week’s wish list: someone to help our DHAR office team for a couple of hours on Tuesday. Volunteers at Paws&Claws - Call 575-894-2639 or 894-1694. Transparent plastic bags - we re-use them at P&C to display small and large items, blankets, afghans, etc. Disposable gloves and cleaning supplies. Chat with us at www.Facebook.com/deserthaven and www.Facebook.com/PawsnClawsthriftshoppe.