Healthy animals, more adoptions goals for Ellijay Paws in Need
A volunteer group is off on a good foot — and paw — in its aim to better prepare dogs at the Gilmer County Animal Shelter for adoption. Started last year, Ellijay Paws in Need welcomes volunteers to walk dogs and enjoy quality time with the animal shelter’s canines.
Stephanie Swann helped get the group organized after reading online posts from fellow Paws in Need founder Ashley Arguto, who was asking people in the community to consider visiting the shelter to walk dogs.
“Dogs have always been a huge part of my life. I’ve driven by the animal shelter for about 10 years, and I’ve donated money (to them), but I always thought it was just too sad to go in there. So I kept my distance,” Swann said. “Something about her posts just touched me. I’m a social worker by education, and I’ve started several organizations in the past, which is just in my nature. I thought, I’m going to prioritize these animal’s needs. I responded and said, ‘OK, I’ll come meet you and help you walk the dogs.’”
Almost 80 people have since responded to the ongoing call for volunteer dogwalkers. That’s enough for each dog to be taken out of the kennel at the shelter and walked on a leash seven days a week, Swann noted.
“I just started putting things out on social media saying how we really need some help, then we started having our volunteer orientations. We built this volunteer core to where, now, every dog in the shelter gets cared for, walked, socialized and loved. It makes such a huge difference in their demeanor and their calmness,” Swann said. “We now have six team leaders, and they each have a team of six to eight people. It’s a very coordinated effort that keeps everything running smoothly with getting the dogs in and out.”
Daniel Laukka, Gilmer Animal Shelter director, said there are multiple benefits of getting the dogs outdoors on a regular basis.
“It keeps their energy level maintained and gives them a chance to get out around people and maybe other dogs,” he added. “That way, they’re not in a high-stress environment 100 percent of the time, staring at another dog that might not be dog-friendly.”
The one-on-one time also appears to be making a difference in the number of dogs adopted from the shelter. Seven have been adopted in the past two weeks, Swann noted.
“The only place you can see the dogs in the Gilmer shelter (online) is on our webpage (ellijaypaws.org),” she added.
Laukka said Paws in Need has “really added a different aspect to the shelter,” and the growing group has been able to expand its mission in a short time.
“I think they’re doing a great job. It’s a really good thing for the animals. It’s more than just walking dogs. When Paws in Need advocates for the dogs, it helps get the word out for them to (possibly) get adopted,” he added.
“It’s grown to where they do play groups and find which dogs mesh well with other dogs. We do a lot of transports out of the shelter to animal rescues. When we’re able to tell a rescue this dog is dog-friendly, it gets a good positive response and helps us build a good relationship with that rescue.”
The group recently developed three wellness initiatives for shelter dogs, all of which are now being implemented. One of those initiatives is changing the dogs’ diet for the better, noted Swann.
“They weren’t fed a consistent diet. Their food, kibble, was constantly changing, which made for very difficult GI problems,” she said. “We started a food donation program and now have enough donors that the dogs are fed the same canned food, which has improved their GI health tremendously.”
The other wellness efforts are helping to provide heartworm prevention and spay/neuter procedures to shelter dogs before they’re adopted or transported to partnering animal rescues. Dogs aren’t typically spayed or neutered after arriving at the shelter, noted Swann.
“In six weeks, we’ve had 10 dogs spayed or neutered. We have a partnership with Appalachian Animal Hospital, and it’s working beautifully,” she said. “We had a fundraiser, and now we have a program where every dog is heartworm tested and put on Trifexis (parasite prevention medication). There’s just not the budget to give them medical care, so this has filled a really big gap.”
Swann said Paws in Need is a sister group to Friends of the Gilmer Animal Shelter (FOGAS). All donations to Paws in Need are handled by FOGAS, which is a 501(c)(3), she noted.
“FOGAS takes care of animals in the community and tries to help people keep their animals out of the shelter with services like (discount) spay and neuter and vaccination clinics. They do a lot, but they didn’t have a volunteer core inside the shelter working (with the dogs),” Swann said.
Rich Gross has only been volunteering with Paws in Need for about three months, but he’s already fostered and adopted a dog from the shelter. He hopes others might end up doing something like that, and maybe some younger volunteers will also take interest.
“There are some good dogs here,” Gross said.
Ellijay Paws in Need holds its volunteer orientations at the Gilmer Animal Shelter, located at 4152 Highway 52 East. Orientations are open to the public and posted in advance on the ellijaypaws.org website. The next one is Saturday, Sept. 10, at noon.
Volunteers who want to take their dogwalking to the next level can now go through an orientation to take a shelter dog hiking, noted Swann.
“We’re very grateful that Daniel has let us do this. It’s a good partnership, and it’s been real heartwarming to see the care in the community. The more people we can get involved, the better care we can give the dogs,” she said.