The Habersham County Animal shelter is fundraising for a van that’s much more than a mode of transport– it’s a way to save animals’ lives.
Habersham County Animal Care and Control’s (HCACC) staff are dedicated to making sure abandoned, surrendered and stray animals find their way into forever homes, and one of the ways they make that happen on a week-to-week basis is through transports.
“Since 2019, HCACC has been able to save hundreds of lives through transporting dogs and cats facing euthanasia to animal welfare organizations in the northeast and the midwest U.S. where they were adopted,” HCACC Director Madi Nix says. “However, we’ve had to rely on the generosity of other rescue groups to provide unused space on their transports when available because we do not have our own transport vehicle.”
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Nix says that the shelter has helped agencies transport 1,176 pets, about half that number being from the Habersham shelter, that struggled to find homes in the region in the past year alone. But because the shelter has to rely on other organizations to make those transports happen, Habersham transports fewer animals than they could.
Nix and the rest of the HCACC staff hope that will soon come to an end with the community’s help. Right now, the HCACC is fundraising for a dedicated transport van of their own that will allow them to transport those animals all on their own.
“The new van will have the capacity to transport a minimum of 20 animals up to a maximum of 40 animals, in a combination of up to 20 dogs and/or 40 cats per trip,” says Nix. “Having our own van will allow HCACC to save 1,000 plus homeless animals per year, more than double our current number going on transports, while reducing the number of animals being euthanized simply due to our shelter being overcrowded.”
The “Road to Rescue” campaign will run through April, with a fundraising goal of $66,000. As of Wednesday, the fundraising campaign has generated $3,694 with the help of 25 donors. Individuals can donate to the campaign online via Fundly.
All donations made during the Road to Rescue campaign will help purchase a new Ford Transit van, as well as fund modifications, fuel and driver fees for the first year. Area businesses donating $5,000 or more to the campaign will have their logo added to the van and will be promoted on HCACC social media.
To learn more about the campaign, or if you have any questions about HCACC, click here.
