By: Sky Loos, Executive Director
Friends of the Animals (formally Friends of the Animal Shelter) is a non-profit organization that was formed in 1991 to help the animals housed at the Jackson County Animal Shelter (JCAS). Friends of the Animals (FOTAS) and JCAS are two separate, distinct entities. FOTAS has trained hundreds of volunteers who socialize and enrich the lives of shelter dogs and cats who are awaiting their forever family. FOTAS volunteers open their homes and serve as fosters which helps reduce kennel stress and opens up much needed space at the shelter. Throughout the years, FOTAS has also provided significant financial support to JCAS. From 2011 to 2022, FOTAS donated more than $347,000 for animal medical expenses alone.
Recently, the county made numerous policy changes which removed FOTAS’ abilities to perform certain activities traditionally carried out by volunteers. As the regulations at the Shelter change, FOTAS is committed to finding new ways to help. Over the past year FOTAS has had the opportunity to reevaluate our efforts and to reflect on the issues facing the community as a whole.
While our attention has historically been on providing support to the Jackson County Animal Shelter, we will now be offering programs to our entire community with a focus on facilitating adoptions for animals both in and out of the shelter by expanding our foster network, creating further access to spay/neuter and other animal medical services, humane education, and resources for people who love their pets.
We are creating programs that seek to keep dogs out of the shelter system altogether. We recently placed a stray dog named Wilson into foster care and promoted him for adoption directly through FOTAS. In less than a week he went home with a wonderful new family. Wilson was a test run for an expanded foster to adopt program that we will be further developing in the coming months; by doing so, we hope to reduce the number of dogs going into the shelter in the first place.
The heart of the animal overpopulation crisis is limited access to affordable spay/neuter services. While FOTAS has already invested in a mobile spay/neuter surgical unit, we hope to go farther and create a low-cost, high-volume spay/neuter clinic for both cats and dogs. Presently, no low-cost option is available for dogs and our community is witnessing the heart wrenching effects of this.
FOTAS offers a monthly low-cost vaccination and microchip clinic for dogs and cats in our region. Each month our dedicated volunteers and community veterinarians vaccinate close to 200 animals, providing much needed access to affordable medical care. To schedule an appointment, visit: https://calendly.com/fotas
For 32 years, volunteers have been the heart and soul of our organization. This is true now, more than ever. If you are interested in getting involved with FOTAS’ efforts to help the dogs and cats in our community, please contact our office: fotas@fotas.org. Visit Fotas.org to learn more about our programs.
