Local nonprofit enables animals to become pets

ELIZABETHTOWN – “Related by passion and interest” is what Silvia Kim and Krista Hansen will tell you when the co-workers at “A Shelter Friend” begin to explain the conjoined heart they have for abandoned and unwanted animals.

Their Bladen County magic turns animals into pets and their reach is nationwide.

“We are basically operating as a liaison group and helping with the county shelter, because as you probably know, they end up with far more animals than this area could possibly adopt out,” Kim said. “So what we tend to do is network them throughout the country.”

Hansen, born in Chicago she began pursuing her master’s degree when she was only 16-years-old from the University of Illinois. She gained a degree in environmental physiology animal science.

Kim was born in Germany and she moved to the United States with her family when she was 8-years-old. They set down roots in Wisconsin as her dad was in the military and had family there.

For these two to get together and find their purpose in Bladen County was perhaps an interesting mix of luck and providence. They met at a County Animal Response Team meeting (CART) after some severe hurricanes came and devastated North Carolina.

“SART was the state level and CART was the county level,” Hansen said. “It was after some of these hurricanes that the state organization was formed. We, being animal people signed up to see what we could do as far as housing animals. I was with large animals and would find people that could take care of horses and other livestock in the case of evacuation. It was a good program. The County Extension office was the one who got us all rolling.”

A Shelter Friend formed in 2007 and incorporated as a nonprofit 501c3 in 2008.

“She (Hansen) asked me to come to the county shelter to take pictures,” Kim said. “At that time there were 10 tiny kennels at the old shelter, 3-4 dogs in a kennel and it was bad.”

“It was a high-kill gassing shelter,” Hansen said. “They had one bank of cat cages, but never any cats in there because they killed them right away. Once I went in and there was a cat in a trap. 40 dogs, and this cat in a trap waiting for his hold period to be over so he could be killed. It was cruel, but it was the way of the times and across the country – most municipalities were gassing them. Before all of that I saw something in the Bladen Journal with a headline that said, ‘4200 animals euthanized at the shelter last year.’ And nobody knew. That’s where we got our start. We needed to let people know this was going on.”

The problem, Kim said with taking pictures of possible animals to adopt on Tuesday, was that on Thursday the animals weren’t there anymore. At that time, they were posting them on Pet Finder.

“Even if anybody looked on Pet Finder, the animals were gone,” Kim said. “It was useless. I was basically taking pictures of dead animals.”

These were the days before animal control ordinances that had a set time before they could be killed.

“Now, our main task is working with animals at the (Bladen County) shelter,” Kim said. “We go in and we assess the animals and see if there are animals there that would be a fit for some of our rescues. Most of them go to foster-based rescues because of the fact that, let’s face it… if you take home a shelter dog there is almost always a training process and unfortunately, the failure rate is very high because these dogs don’t know anything. We do encourage crates (during the training process).”

Hansen said that Kim has set up a network across the country of different rescues and trusted partners and animals are not just being shipped off to Walmart parking lots.

“Right now, our county shelter is inundated with puppies,” Kim said. “There are about 20 puppies right now and at least 30 more waiting to come in. This is because there’s no spay/neuter ordinance and no licensing. Licensing is one way to pay for a spay/neuter program. Other counties are able to spay/neuter before adoption from their county shelters, but Bladen hasn’t made that a priority yet.”

“Here there are a lot of hounds,” Hansen said. “At the end of the hunting season – many of the dogs are expendable and sent to the Bladen Animal Shelter.”

Most people have seen the notice in the Bladen Journal that says, “Low-income Bladen County residents who want to get their pets spayed or neutered through A Shelter Friend’s Low-income Spay/Neuter Program can call 910-645-2297 for information and sign-up. Share this number with friends and neighbors who are producing unwanted litters of puppies and kittens! Don’t Wait. Stop this cycle… do it now.”

The question is how a nonprofit can find the money to help people in need.

“Donations,” Kim said. “Everything you see here is donation based. And I beg.”

100% of donations go toward the animals and their care. Now, A Shelter Friend is not a place where the general public can just drop off animals. That must be done through the shelter. This organization tries to rescue the overflow and the candidates for relocation into their network.

Both Kim and Hansen are volunteers – but some of the money that comes in for the animal care goes toward those who come in to clean and care for the animals.

“We do have a few people that are paid,” Kim said. “Only because it’s almost impossible to find those volunteer caregivers on a regular and consistent basis. We are inspected by the State of North Carolina and we have a state license.”

A Shelter Friend organization works tirelessly to turn the quality of life into success for their future pets. Donations are not always regular and not always adequate. Both Kim and Hansen agree that if they could find someone with grant-writing abilities, it would be something the team would really be grateful for. They, in addition to finding more volunteers are looking for someone to donate a singlewide home to help house the animals as they are completely full right now.

“If we could find someone to donate one in good condition or even a very low-priced home would be so welcome,” Kim said.

There are so many miracles and blessings in this type of nonprofit and the women have years of success stories even in the midst of all the odds against them. They have good days and bad days. When asked what the greatest challenge might be in this journey, Hansen responded.

“I recognize the most difficult thing for me is speaking to people whose pet just had a litter,” she said. “They say things like ‘I didn’t think she was old enough’ or ‘I planned to get her spayed, I just never got around to it.’ Litter after litter after litter. Female cats can get pregnant between 4 and five months. If she weighs 3 pounds, get her spayed. Female dogs can come in heat at six months. As she approaches that age, get her spayed. Then, as we are working with people to qualify and schedule their pets- they may not reply to our calls or they may even blow off their appointment. Vet appointments are difficult enough to get post covid, DON’T MISS IT.”

A Shelter friend at a glance:

A shelter Friend is made up of volunteers giving pets a second chance at life.

A Shelter Friend, Inc. Is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with a vision:

To End the killing of Homeless and Unwanted Pets.

A Shelter Friend volunteers believe that a world which shows empathy toward animals will show more compassion and tolerance toward each other.

What We Do

ASF provides positive publicity and increased visibility of the Bladen County Animal Shelter to increase adoptions. Previously, 90% of the animals entering the County Shelter did not make it out alive. This number has dropped to less than 10% for dogs since ASF was formed.

Volunteers make use of the internet and telephone to connect homeless and unwanted dogs and cats at the County Animal Shelter with rescue organizations and adoptive homes nationwide.

ASF acts as a liaison, coordinating rescue efforts and assisting with the logistics, including veterinary care quarantine and transportation.

ASF organizes and subsidizes a spay & Neuter Program for the pets of low-income Bladen residents. 300 dogs and cats are spayed and neutered each year.

Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is the humane solution to community cat populations, and A Shelter Friend is proud of our Bladen County TNR Program. Community cats are humanely trapped, brought to a veterinarian to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, ear tipped (the universal sign that a community cat has been neutered and vaccinated), and then returned to their outdoor home. For cats and for communities; TNR works. ASF relies on your donations to keep this lifesaving program running.

ASF Quarantine

A Shelter Friend Quarantine is a private animal shelter in Bladen County, licensed and inspected by the NCDA & CS. A Shelter Friend’s Quarantine facility has two components. The indoor facility houses unwanted puppies, cats and kittens pulled from the Bladen County Animal Control Shelter and cared for until cleared for travel to approved rescue organizations, usually within two weeks.

The outdoor kennels house the older dogs – young adults tossed away when they grew big and rambunctious, or seniors callously dumped when they began to slow down or acquire health issues. At the County Shelter animals are euthanized after a holding period if space is needed. The County budget provides very little for veterinary care. Thus, A Shelter Friend Quarantine provides care and buys precious time for dogs until we can find their well-deserved “happy-ever-after”.

Proper animal care takes money, Food, medications, vaccinations, electricity, propane, fuel to drive animals to vet appointments, transports plus vet charges and never-ending repairs.

Donations to A Shelter Friend help change the future for thousands of homeless, unwanted and abused pets of Bladen County, NC, now and into the future. 100% of all donations will save lives.

Donate and be a part of something amazing!

Saving lives is expensive and every month we struggle to pay our expenses while fighting to save the lives of these poor animals that NEVER asked to be on death row.

We help when the kill shelter gets a medical emergency that they would need to euthanize because they only have minor medical provisions in their budget.

Young shelter animals can get sick with many illnesses including parvo and upper respiratory infections. We take in and quarantine, deworm, medicate and vaccinate puppies and kittens.

We administer and subsidize a spay/neuter program for residents with limited incomes.

ASF volunteers connect with good Samaritans feeding “community cats” to Trap, Neuter, vaccinate and return these cats back to their caretakers (TNR).

ASF gets animals out of the County kill shelter when they have a commitment to go to our rescue partners throughout the country. This not only saves the life of that animal but gives the precious gift of time to others at the shelter until they are adopted or rescued.

This costs us many thousands of dollars each month. Since 2007 A Shelter Friend has saved over 1,000 dogs and cats, puppies and kittens each and every year. Our vet bills, spay/neuter, boarding and transport are now more than $200,000/year.

A quarter of a million pets are put to sleep or euthanized in animal shelters in North Carolina every year, including the puppies of purebred dogs. Spaying and Neutering helps reduce the number of homeless pets and pet deaths.