Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County (Pierceton)

If there is too little space and they get a litter of kittens, they'll try to find someone who is willing to take care of the kittens until there is enough room or until they are old enough. Same goes for puppies.

They have a social media standing on Twitter and Facebook where they post pets of the week/day and information on events and special pricing. They have events at Petsmart and fundraisers where they have animals available for adoption. They give out goodie bags for people that just adopted which has coupons and vouchers for a free first vet visit as well as useful info on the kind of animal you have.

AWL is always giving people advice especially through social media and emailing which reduces pet surrendering and returns and increases adoptions.

Every animal they have ready for adoption is vaccinated, their employees know how to properly handle pets, everything is cleaned with bleach to keep down the smells and sickness, they allow people to take dogs/cats out of the cages and walk them outside where there is a trail and a fenced in area. Their sick animals are kept away from the general population to not spread disease and every precaution is taken to ensure the safety of animals. If an animal has been traumatized, employees and people get warned to be slow and gentle with the animal so it will not get scared and bite someone when it could have been prevented.

The AWL does a wonderful job of getting animals out into the community where they can bring comfort and joy to people in need. I know that this effort will expand when they move into their new headquarters. This is a valuable organization in our community!

The director goes out and does a radio program every Wednesday to promote new initiatives and upcoming events. Their strong social media presence allows them to show off new animals and pricing specials, or to promote fundraising via crowdfunding websites.

AWL has many volunteers that go to their events, and they go out and do pet therapies for nursing and retirement homes which helps socialize the animals and makes the residents happy. The volunteers they have are their main helpers when it comes to events because they help set up and bring/handle animals.

AWL uses Facebook to communicate with owners of pets if AWL thinks they found a person's pet and doesn't have a phone number to call them with. They also receive many lost reports through Facebook and email which are then added to a lost/found database if the animal isn't already listed there, this allows other shelters to report it found as well.

Darla, the director works tirelessly to keep the shelter running smoothly, keep the adoption rates high and EU low with a very limited budget and deteriorating building. She very much believes in not putting down animals for space reasons or any unnecessary reasons, unless it would be inhumane not to do so such as if the animal is in severe pain/dying and is not treatable.