Humane Society links canines with caring
The Cache Humane Society is holding its third-annual Links for Love fundraising event.
The price of each “link of love” bracelet is $1. The donor will get one bracelet to wear and one to put on the community chain.
Kirsten Nelson, the shelter’s fundraising and community outreach coordinator, said the goal is to be able to wrap all the links of the chain around the facility.
“The first year we got 900 and that was almost all the way around the building,” Nelson said. “I’m hoping this year we can get 900. Optimistically, I think we can get about 1,000.”
Jodi DeVries, the society’s director and special events coordinator, said donations from the event will go to helping take care of the 45 cats, 40 dogs and three rabbits currently in the shelter.
“We are a nonprofit, so most of the money that comes into us is donation,” DeVries said.
The shelter is also privately run, meaning it does not receive money from the government or public shelter organizations. Money raised at the event will go toward basic care for the animals, including food, water and cleaning.
“People don’t realize that we go through laundry like crazy – washing dishes, bleach, detergent, kitty litter,” DeVries said. “We go through tons and tons of kitty litter.”
Nelson said donations will provide an opportunity for animals to be adopted into a new home.
“We take the ones that are rejected,” Nelson said. “We are the net. We are catching animals and giving them another chance.”
In the past 12 months the shelter has facilitated the adoptions of 643 dogs and 475 cats. Nelson said without the shelter, animal control would be in charge of stray cats and dogs, many of which would be put down if not adopted.
The cost of care adds up quickly. Some animals are adopted the day they are brought in. Others are held for eight to nine months at a time.
Russell is a dog who has been in the shelter’s care for almost two months. The two-year-old black Labrador retriever is a hunting dog. He is house trained and good with other dogs and children. For each week he is kept at the facility, expenses include $7.50 for food and $10 for additional care.
“I don’t even understand how we run sometimes,” Nelson said. “We’re all working really hard to keep this running.”
Nelson said she hopes the community will come together and donate to help each animal the shelter is trying to save.
“If we could get every person in Cache Valley to donate $1 we could try to figure out how much money we could bring in for our homeless pets,” Nelson said.
Links can be purchased online or at the shelter until Feb. 16, during the Links of Love Pet Date event. The final event will feature a pet psychic and a final reveal of how long the donation chain is, held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cache Humane Society at 2370 W. 200 North in Logan.
– jhinrichs2002@gmail.com