LETTERS

Puppies, kittens enjoy Christmas miracle

Dear Editor:

Two of Cherokee County's animal welfare organizations joined forces Dec. 15, to make a Christmas miracle for local unwanted puppies and kittens, taking them to Michigan where they will be adopted.

Judy Wyles, founder of Project Zero, a local limited-entry pet rescue, is a member of www.911petrescue.com, an online message board for people and organizations all over the U.S. and Canada who want to save lives and stop animal cruelty. Judy read a call for Southern puppies and kittens from one of the board's administrators, Shari Wilcox, who volunteers weekly for her local Humane Society of Huron Valley. Shari had been given the go-ahead by shelter management to bring puppies and kittens between 8 and 12 weeks of age which were also healthy and adoptable into their facility.

Judy was able to find nine puppies that the owner didn't want to take to the shelter, but who wasn't going to have much of a choice as they got older and less adoptable. Working with Cherokee County Animal Shelter staff, Judy took all the small kittens there and quarantined them Dec. 7. The receiving shelter could take up to 15 kittens, so the search expanded.

A local woman who was fostering some kittens from the Cherokee County shelter offered to drive to Richmond, KY, to meet Shari halfway. A few other kittens were taken in from folks who were unable to care for them and all the babies were given their first vaccinations, dewormings and received interstate health certificates from a local veterinarian prior to transport.

The Humane Society of Cherokee County recently brought its cargo van back to Gaffney. The board of directors had agreed for the past two years to loan the van to Carolina Poodle Rescue for the primary purpose of bringing dogs rescued from puppy mills to the appropriate breed-specific rescues for their rehabilitation and re-homing. The Humane Society of Cherokee County offered the use of this van for the transport, and will make it available for similar efforts to save local pets in the future.

Project Zero and the Humane Society (with a new seven-member board) have agreed to work together to maximize the life-saving services this county needs for its unwanted pets. This Christmas miracle will hopefully expand into a year-round effort to help save more of the shelter pets from the current 68 percent euthanization rate (Cherokee County Animal Shelter records for 2006) and to reduce future shelter animal intake by offering extremely low-cost sterilization to local pet owners to prevent unwanted litters.

A combination of cooperative rescue efforts, affordable spay/neuter programs, weekend and offsite adoption hours, a strong foster care program, active and motivated volunteers, with a professional shelter management team has proved to be effective across the nation during the past 10 years as a way to reduce the deaths of adoptable pets to less than 10 percent, and the expense of animal shelters to the taxpayers. Working together, these goals can be realized by the City of Gaffney and Cherokee County during the next fiscal year.

Sarah Shiflett

President Humane Society of Cherokee County

Judy Wyles

Founder

Project Zero, LLC

Says county councilman has false concerns over substation

Dear Editor:

I am writing in response to the recent article concerning the staffing of the East Gaffney Fire Department Substation, which in my opinion, once again demonstrates the FALSE concerns provided by council members about our public service agencies.

Firefighters at the Gaffney Departments are highly trained and skilled at their profession. In order to maintain those high level certifications, many instances are required to attend continuing education classes at the main station and in their immediate area, or did you stop long enough to think, that they may be out on a call, testing hydrants, conducting public awareness classes, etc.

If the departments are not staffed to the satisfaction of residents, or council members, then appropriate more money to salaries and manpower, instead of planting flowers around the county, or raising council members' salaries.

As I said, Gaffney's firefighters are very highly trained and skilled at their profession. We should feel lucky to have them. They are all dedicated to helping others, as is our EMS, and law enforcement.

Do your homework before you criticize those who do the job that you can't, or won't, do yourself. Or even better, take a moment to thank them for all they do for us.

Respectfully, James Bolton

Gaffney, S.C.