Category Archives: Where your donations go

2023, Donate, donations, Where your donations go

Giving Tuesday: making a difference for the County’s homeless animals

Posted on by Shana Ryberg
Jen with Gertrude at adoption station.
25
Nov

This Tuesday, November 28th, is Giving Tuesday, which kicks off the annual Christmas-giving season with a world-wide celebration of selfless generosity. If you are charitably inclined, how do you decide which of the many worthy local charities are worthy of your generosity?

If you’re an animal lover (and I know you are) and you want your hard-earned dollars to make a difference, then FOTAS, the private partner of the Aiken County Animal Shelter, is an excellent choice for your charitable urges. Here’s why.

  • FOTAS, working with the county shelter, saves more animals than any other 501(c)(3) organization in the CSRA. Period. Full stop. For the past FIVE years, every adoptable animal at the shelter was saved, and FOTAS has kicked into overdrive to do the same this year.
  • FOTAS AND AIKEN COUNTY fund more spay/neuter pet surgeries for folks in financial need than any other charitable organization in the CSRA.
  • FOTAS AND AIKEN COUNTY fund more TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) surgeries for community cats than any other charitable organization in the CSRA.

     

  • FOTAS saves more heartworm positive (HWP) dogs than any other charitable organization in the CSRA.

     

  • FOTAS supplements adoption fees for active military personnel and veterans.

     

  • FOTAS helps county animal control take dogs off the chain by funding humane runners for distribution to county residents.

     

  • FOTAS GIVES OUT MORE PET FOOD TO AIKEN COUNTY PET OWNERS IN NEED THAN ANY OTHER CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION IN THE CSRA. This critical assistance makes it possible for folks to feed (and, thus, keep) their animals in hard times.

     

  • FOTAS also funds the costs of flea medication, toys, leashes, and pet food supplements, as well as subsidizing equipment and extraordinary medical needs at the shelter.

FOTAS is 100% supported by private donations, and we need your help now more than ever. The shelter, like all public shelters post-Covid, is overwhelmed with shockingly high intake. More people are abandoning their animals than adopting new ones. Here in Aiken County, the problem is compounded by an explosion in population growth (I’m sure you’ve seen all those housing developments springing up all over the county!), and a severe shortage of veterinarians and low-cost spay/neuter services. This means more and more animals are joining the ranks of the unwanted and the homeless—a heartbreaking tragedy after so many years of progress.

But, you ask, have all those private donations to FOTAS really made a difference

Absolutely! An incredible difference! In 2009 (the year that FOTAS was created) 95% of the animals consigned to the shelter were euthanized. Today that number has been turned on its head. From 2018 through this year, 2023, every adoptable animal at the shelter was (and will be) saved. That’s over a 90% save rate. 

Our success is your success: FOTAS’ ability to save so those thousands and thousands of shelter animals is the direct result of your generosity. From our hearts to yours, thank you and God bless.

Please send your much-appreciated donations to FOTAS, PO Box 2207, Aiken SC 29802, or go to fotasaiken.org to make your donation online. By the way, when you donate to FOTAS, you can be certain that 90% or more of every dollar of your donation will go to our life-saving programs. 

Their lives are in our hands.
By Joanna D. Samson, FOTAS Vice-President

 

2021, FOTAS, News, shelter construction, Where your donations go, Where your donations go

County Shelter P.A.W.S. Center Is About to Become a Reality

Posted on by Bob Gordon
16
Jun

You have been looking for the perfect canine friend, and you think you finally found her on the FOTAS website—a lovely, white Pibble with a brown patch on her eye named Jewel. You saw her picture and thought, “Yes! She’s the one!” You call the Aiken County Animal Shelter and make an appointment. As you drive your car towards your dog destiny, you imagine all the things you and Jewel are going to do together when she comes home with you.

The new building will be next to the shelter’s feline facility.

When you arrive at the shelter, the adoption staff brings Jewel outside to meet you in the play yard. She’s excited to be out of the kennel. She races around the yard, sniffs the fence posts, barks at the other dogs, shows a keen interest in the cars in the parking lot. In fact, Jewel shows a keen interest in just about everything and everybody but you. Although you know in your head why she’s distracted—it’s a busy county shelter with lots of noise and people—your heart is broken. You leave the shelter disappointed and without Jewel.

But what if there had been a quiet place indoors, away from distractions, where you could meet Jewel—just you and her, maybe one of the adoption staff to oversee the introduction? Odds are, based on our experience, Jewel would have crawled into your lap and given you one of those big, goofy Pibble smiles. In that case, you would have left the shelter with a full heart and Jewel in the back seat.

The addition of meet and greet rooms where potential adopters can get to know a new dog, away from the frenzied environment of the kennels and the distractions of the outside play yards, is on top of the Shelter’s wish list. In addition, the Shelter also needs an indoor room with no distractions for training and socialization of shelter residents. Most shelter dogs have never been taught basic obedience skills, which are important for a new dog to become a good family member. An indoor training room could also provide a space for indoor dog play groups, for introducing the new dog with a potential adopter’s existing dog, as well as for holding educational events for children, Junior FOTAS after school clubs and camps, community organizations, as well as training for staff and volunteers.

Although the original plans for the shelter included meet and greet, adoption, and training rooms, there simply wasn’t enough funding at the time. Finally, thanks to the generosity of the Aiken community, FOTAS fundraisers, and two recent, substantial legacy estate donations, we are pleased to announce that FOTAS and the Shelter are developing plans for the P.A.W.S. Center (Primary Learning, Adoption, Wellness, Socialization). The addition would also include a new, stress-free cat room and patio for our feline residents.

The P.A.W.S. Center will be a wonderful addition to the county shelter.

In short, the P.A.W.S. Center will help us make our animals more adoptable and reduce their length of stay. That’s a win-win for everyone.

Thank you for your support and for making us part of your estate plans. Your generosity makes it possible for the Shelter to take the Center off its wish list and make it a reality. We’ll keep you posted as the plans unfold.

Their lives are in our hands.

— By Jennifer Miller & Joanna Samson, FOTAS

2020, Donate, donations, FOTAS, GivingTuesday, News, Where your donations go, Where your donations go

GivingTuesday: Please Consider Contributing to FOTAS on Dec. 1

Posted on by Bob Gordon
01
Dec

This Tuesday, Dec. 1, is a global day of giving – an opportunity for people to contribute to the greater good in support of charities that are important to them. GivingTuesday was started in 2012 and always takes place on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. FOTAS is participating in this wonderful event and has a generous donor who will match donations up to $7,500.

Like most organizations, FOTAS and the Aiken County Animal Shelter (ACAS) have felt the negative impact of the 2020 pandemic. We had to suspend our big fundraising events this year due to the COVID-19 crisis. The annual FOTAS Playing Fore the Pets golf outing and Woofstock Doggie Derby Day are scheduled to carry on in 2021, but it hurt having to cancel them in 2020. With the pandemic causing such chaos, every dollar you donate is more important than ever and greatly appreciated.

FOTAS Programs Coordinator Kathy Jacobs comforts Roger, a scared Retriever mix , at the Aiken County Animal Shelter.

Where your donations go
All FOTAS donations go directly to programs that help save the homeless pets at the ACAS.
Your donations pay for:
• Specialized surgery and physical rehab for adoptable dogs and cats who arrive abused, injured or sick

• Medical treatments such as those for heartworm positive dogs

• Medical equipment and facility improvements at the shelter

• Transports of shelter pets who are not locally adopted. to rescues in the northeast Without these transports, our shelter would be overcrowded and at risk of having to euthanize adoptable pets.

• Fenced-in play yards for incoming dogs

• Flea and tick treatment, leashes, toys collars, beds for the shelter animals

• Spay/neuter for community cats and pets whose owners need financial assistance

• Humane runners to get pet dogs of chains

• Food for community pets in need

• Adoption fees for active military and veterans


We are thankful to the Aiken community
The shelter took in more than 4,000 abandoned, neglected and abused animals last year and continues to receive high numbers of homeless pets in 2020.

KAI, a Siamese kitten, gets used to his cast after an operation that saved his leg. He is now being fostered by a FOTAS volunteer.

But thanks to your donations, the euthanasia rate at the ACA has dropped from 71% in 2013 to less than 5% in 2019. To put it another way, the save rate at the shelter is 95%, a complete turnaround from where we were when we started out 10 years ago. In fact, every adoptable animal has been saved over the last three years.

How to donate to the homeless pets at the county shelter
To donate to FOTAS, please go to our website, FOTASAiken.org. We are a volunteer-based organization and a registered 501c3 public charity and all donations are tax deductible. FOTAS is a recipient of the Secretary of State of South Carolina Angel Award – one of ten, out of 14,000 organizations, recognized as representing the most efficient and effective charities in SC.

Thanksgiving is a time to reach out. We give thanks to our community – volunteers, donors, adopters, the county council, and county staff – as we head into GivingTuesday to continue our life-saving programs.

Their lives are in our hands.

— By Bob Gordon, FOTAS Communications Director

2020, Adoption, donations, FOTAS, Have a Heart, Save a Heart, Home-to-Home adoption program, News, Spay/Neuter, TNR Program, Transfer, Volunteers, Where your donations go, Where your donations go

FOTAS and 11 Years of Progress at the Aiken County Animal Shelter

Posted on by Bob Gordon
30
Jul

On July 29, 2009, the South Carolina Secretary of State officially approved FOTAS as a charitable nonprofit organization dedicated to the care of the homeless, abandoned, and abused animals consigned to the County Shelter, kicking off the beginning of an extraordinary public/private partnership with the county and a new, comprehensive approach to caring for homeless animals. It was a massive undertaking. At the time, more than 6,000 animals a year passed through the doors of the county’s tiny, antiquated shelter. Only 5% made it out alive.

FOTAS helps fund the TNR program, which has been so effective in curbing community cat overpopulation in the Aiken County

All of that has changed in the past 11 years. With the opening of the new shelter in 2014, the FOTAS/county partnership solidified and blossomed. FOTAS volunteers are an integral part of the shelter’s operations (it is estimated that FOTAS volunteers provide the equivalent of ten full-time positions). FOTAS donations supplement the shelter’s budget and programs and provide supplies such as leashes, toys, flea and tick prevention, and medicine for heartworm positive dogs. FOTAS has created a network of transfer partners in other parts of the country (where kennels are empty because everyone fixes their pets) where we send dogs (and pay the incurred transport costs) who could not find homes locally. The transfer program saves thousands of animals every year.

We also attack the problem of overpopulation of homeless pets. FOTAS supplements the county’s spay/neuter financial assistance program for county residents who need it, as well as funds to support the TNR (Trap Neuter Return) program to address the problems of community cats. We hire a mobile spay/neuter van to go to hot-spot areas around the county (the FIDO Fix-a-Pet program) to provide free spay/neuter surgeries for citizens who need financial assistance.

Tiffy is adopted following mouth surgery. This poor kitten was rescued after being thrown from a moving car.

Our Home-to-Home program allows folks who can no longer care for their pets to use the power of our social media to find loving homes without subjecting their beloved pets to the trauma of surrender to the shelter (it’s been a huge success during the COVID crisis!) FOTAS works with Animal Control to provide dog houses and humane runners for dogs who are tethered to chains, as well as dog food and other supplies to help folks in a bind.

Biz and Eddie Mann adopted Snowflake (now named Keaton) from the ACAS in July.

FOTAS also helps with the improvement of the physical facilities at the shelter. In addition to funding the medical wellness and isolation pod for animals with curable infectious ailments, plans are currently underway for a building that will house two, much needed adoption rooms and a training area.

In 2017, FOTAS was one of ten (out of 14,000) charitable organizations to be awarded the Angel Award by the Secretary of State, which recognizes the most efficient and effective nonprofits in the state. Plus, for the second year in a row, FOTAS and our signature event, Woofstock, received the Aiken Standard Choice Best of Aiken Award.

We have managed to do all of this with only one paid staff member and an army of volunteers. Has it worked? You bet it has. For the past two years, FOTAS and the county achieved their goal of not having to euthanize any adoptable pet.

None of this would have been possible without you, the generous Aiken community, who have donated your time and money and welcomed shelter animals into your hearts and homes.

Thank you and God Bless. Stay safe.


–By Joanna D. Samson, FOTAS Vice President

2019, Donate, donations, FOTAS, Have a Heart, Save a Heart, News, Where your donations go, Where your donations go

FOTAS: Making a Difference for the County’s Homeless Animals

Posted on by Bob Gordon
03
Dec

“Giving is not just about making a donation, it’s about making a difference.” –Kathy Calvin, CEO, United Nations Foundation

It’s the time of year when the spirit of Christmas thrives. It’s a time of gratitude for our family and friends. It’s a time to rejoice our faith. It’s a time for love.

The holidays are an important time for FOTAS to receive donations.

It is also the time to express your love through charitable giving, and if your mailbox is anything like mine, it’s filled with requests from worthy local charities for year-end contributions. They all do good works, so how do you decide?

If you’re an animal lover and you want your hard-earned dollars to make a real and measurable difference, then FOTAS, the private partner of the Aiken County Animal Shelter, is the right choice for your charitable urges. Here’s why:

• FOTAS, working with the county shelter, saves more animals any other 501(c)(3) organization in the CSRA through its innovative and aggressive adoption and transfer programs. Last year, 4507 animals were saved, and this year we anticipate that every adoptable animal that ends up in the shelter will be saved.

• FOTAS funds more spay/neuter pet surgeries for folks in financial need than any other 501(c)(3) organization in the CSRA.

• FOTAS funds more TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) surgeries for community cats than any other 501(c)(3) organization in the CSRA.

• FOTAS saves more heartworm positive (HWP) dogs than any other 501(c)(3) organization in the CSRA.

• FOTAS recruits and trains an army of foster families and volunteers to help the shelter with all of its activities and needs.

• FOTAS supplements adoption fees for active military personnel and veterans.

• FOTAS helps county animal control take dogs off the chain by funding humane runners for distribution to county residents.

• FOTAS also funds the costs of flea medication, toys, leashes, and pet food supplements, as well as subsidizing equipment and extraordinary medical needs.

FOTAS is 100% supported by private donations, so your generosity is critical to our continued success. Plus, you can rest assured that every dollar you donate will be put to good use. FOTAS was one of ten (out of thousands!) South Carolina charities to receive the Secretary of State’s “Angel” award, which recognizes the state’s most efficient and effective charities.

Santa Claus is coming to the ACAS!

But, you ask, have all those private donations to FOTAS really made a difference?

You bet they have. In 2009, the year that FOTAS was created, only 5% of the animals consigned to the shelter made it out alive. In 2018 and 2019, every adoptable animal passing through the shelter was (and will be) saved—that’s well over 95%

That’s huge.

As exciting as our success has been, there is still so much to do, particularly since the county’s intake numbers remain dishearteningly high (4,500-5,000 animals/year). We greatly appreciate your generosity and hope you will continue to support us.

Please send your much-needed donations to FOTAS, PO Box 2207, Aiken SC 29802.

Their lives are in our hands

PS: Join us for our Homes for the Holidays adoption special this Saturday, December 7th!

— By Joanna D. Samson, FOTAS Vice-President

BY THE NUMBERS
Saturday, Dec. 7, FOTAS is holding a “Homes for the Holidays” adoption event at the Aiken County Animal Shelter from 11:00 to 4:30. It will feature adoption specials, refreshments and special guest, Santa Claus. All adopters will receive a gift and a complimentary photo with Santa and their new pet.

PETS OF THE WEEK

JD: Hound mix, male, 5 years old, white & brown, 69 pounds – $35

REMI: Domestic Shorthair cat, male, 1 year old, brown Tabby, 8 pounds – $10