Week of 4/4/10 Humane Happenings

Lucy (known as Sasha at DH) is the picture of contentment in her new home

This week, The Sierra County Humane Society and the folks at Desert Haven wish to acknowledge the nice folks who are dropping off bags and cans of pet food for the residents of the no-kill domestic animal sanctuary. Large or small, their in-kind donations as well as their contributions earmarked for pet food are a blessing. At this time, Desert Haven is housing its largest population of dogs and cats since it opened its doors several years ago, and a lot of food is distributed twice a day to keep this little army of healthy animals fed and happy. A number of folks who patronize Paws & Claws Thrift Shoppe in T or C are making it a point these days to ask us about Desert Haven’s pet food situation versus Walmart.

As our readers already know, since the mega store opened its doors in our area in August 2008, Walmart started to donate their damaged bags of pet food to the Sierra County Humane Society, the only 501-C-3 non-profit animal welfare organization in Sierra County. The donated pet food was earmarked to feed the residents of Desert Haven, the domestic animal sanctuary owned and operated by the society. Because of Walmart’s generosity, Desert Haven became financially able to rescue even more dogs and cats than it had in the past. When a new management came on board at the mega store in the Fall of 2009 and changes were made within its ranks, Walmart’s pet food donations to Desert Haven suddenly stopped, leaving Sierra County’s only no-kill sanctuary with an immediate and totally unanticipated lack of adequate donated pet food to help feed its all-time high number of dogs and cats.

We trust that everyone who embraces the cause of the animals in our area and also those who have been helped by our organization in some way, either through our Spay-Neuter or any of our other community oriented programs, will consider putting Desert Haven on their list of worthwhile causes to donate to.

This week’s kudos go to Mary Roden, who for the past several weeks has visited the 36 kitties at Desert Haven’s Cool Cat Neighborhood every Tuesday, when the sanctuary is open for visitors. Not only does she spend a lot of time with them that day, but she never fails to bring with her either dog or cat food, as she knows how costly it is for a small organization lie ours to properly care for as many companion animals as we currently have, especially in these financially difficult times.

Interested in helping the cause of Sierra County’s companion animals in some way? Visit Desert Haven on Tuesday or contact us at 575-894-2778 or 575-740-4100. For more information on the Sierra County Humane Society, Inc., Desert Haven Animal Refuge and P&C thrift Shoppe, you can also visit us at www.DesertHavenAnimalRefuge.com, and at www.Facebook.com/deserthaven.