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Humane Society fund-raiser Friday By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer The
Marshall County Humane Society’s annual fund-raiser is set for Friday,
August 6, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Collins-Hurdle VFW Post on
Craft Street in Holly Springs. The public is
invited to participate in live and silent auctions, enjoy food catered
by Michael’s Country & Creole, and listen to Donna Wolf play the
fiddle. Advance tickets can be purchased for $10 at the Byhalia Chamber
of Commerce or from any member of the Humane Society or at the door for
$12. Locally, the Humane Society has provided
8,232 low-cost surgical sterilizations since 1999 by an all-volunteer
staff. This year 433 pets have been spay-neutered. The
Humane Society also operates an animal shelter and adopts out to good
homes healthy dogs and cats that have been rescued. The local chapter
provides education on the benefits of spaying-neutering pets in an
effort to reduce the number of unwanted litters and thus homeless pets.
It provides sterilization services of pets at low costs to individuals
who cannot afford to pay the full cost of neutering their cats or dogs
and operates the adoption center which can accept only three or four
animals a month. The adoption center stays at capacity and therefore an
animal has to be adopted in order for another pet to be accepted. President
Maggie Holmes, who reported to the Marshall County Board of Supervisors
recently, said 50 percent of calls are inquiries about spay-neuter
services, 10 percent about adoption, 20 percent requests to come get
animals, five percent regarding animal neglect or cruelty, 10 percent
miscellaneous and five percent for help in finding a lost pet. All
animals at the adoption center are listed on Petfinders.com. Homes for
some animals are found up North where animal care and control as well
as reproduction has been curtailed by local statutes. It
costs about $114 to get a female animal ready for transport to
Mississippi State University at Starkville which provides a program for
shipping animals to adoption centers in Northern states, Holmes said. “It gets dogs out of Mississippi and gives dogs a chance to get a forever home,” she said. The
number of pets in heat or pregnant when brought to the spay-neuter
clinic has dropped from 35 percent to 29 percent since the clinic has
been in operation, an indication that pet owners are becoming more
educated about pet care and prevention of unwanted litters, Holmes said.
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