WAUSEON — Weeks-old puppies without mothers. Cats being treated for illness and injuries. Former pets with nowhere else to go.
These are just some of the animals housed by the Fulton County Humane Society in Wauseon. But with its current building in the process of being sold, the FCHS is asking for help from the public to raise money and find a new home for the organization.
“We’re really in a holding pattern,” said Krystal Labadie, its kennel manager. “We can’t accept any more dogs from anywhere.”
Ms. Labadie said the group had a location, but that deal fell through. And now it has until month’s end to move out.
Volunteers are continuing with adoptions and finding foster homes for animals, Ms. Labadie said, and any animals left without a place to go by New Year’s Eve will board with the volunteers.
Donation links are available on the organization’s website, www.fultonohiohumane.org. The group also has a GoFundMe at www.gofundme.com/f/fchs-building to raise funds for the move.
The fund-raiser’s goal is $200,000, because that’s approximately what volunteers have found to be the minimum price for a site that could suit the humane society’s needs. The organization has leased its current building since 2017.
“We are looking, but we don’t have an offer or anything,” Ms. Labadie said. “We don’t know what we’re going to do at the end of the month.”
Denise Miller, the society’s feline manager, has volunteered there since 2018 and said without organizations like the FCHS, the sick or injured animals that come through the doors would have nowhere to go.
“We’ve seen the bad things that happen when there aren’t organizations like ours,” she said.
Ms. Labadie said the humane society works with the Fulton County dog warden to take in dogs, but the imminent move has forced it to stop accepting more. And without a long-term mailing address, it can’t submit applications for grants that provide part of its revenue, along with donations and fund-raising.
The society’s preferences for a new site’s features include both indoor and outdoor areas for its dogs, plus potential to build and expand as needed.
Office manager Stephanie Moore said the group is working on new programs that include a seniors’ program for cats and a dog-training program for veterans. Additionally, the organization offers a pet-food pantry where excess pet food is given away to community members who are in need of it.
Without a new place lined up, Ms. Labadie said the future is worrisome. But as long as the group can keep its operations going, the organization will be able to survive in some capacity.
“We’re just really looking to keep everything going,” she said. “We don’t want to stop doing what we’re doing.”
First Published December 5, 2021, 1:16 p.m.
