News from SFHS

It’s time the public took notice of the positive changes taking place at the St. Frances Animal Center.

The name is new — it was formerly the St. Frances Humane Society — and reflects a new spirit of worth being infused into the organization by some caring board members and Executive Director Nancy Campos.

Rather than being a dumping ground for unwanted dogs and cats, St. Frances plans to promote the value of pets and find homes for healthy animals that have been spayed or neutered. St. Frances has connections across the country to find homes for dogs and cats.

Ideas have been churning within the organization following a visit last year from Michael Arms, an inspirational animal advocate and director of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego.

He told local volunteers and employees to change their mind-set about animals that were brought to the shelter. They are not unwanted. They have value.

The animal shelter was a favorite charity of the late Frances Bunnelle, hence the name St. Frances. She remembered the organization when setting up the Bunnelle Foundation, and her generosity has allowed it to stay on its feet through some hard times.

The facility is at the end of Ridge Road near a city sewage treatment plant. The road leading to the driveway is rutted and pot-holed. First impressions of the facility can be deceiving.

Inside is a happy, yet hopefully temporary, home for dogs and cats and other assorted animals needing adoption. A few office cats have run of the place and walk across desks or sleep in rocking chairs as they please.

Other cats stay in cages that are kept clean by volunteers — it’s a pet store-style operation — so they have a better chance of being adopted. When someone dropped a big Persian cat into the dog run late one night — people can be dumb — he became an instant celebrity. He was given the name Mr. Jingles and quickly found a foster home that will likely become permanent.

St. Frances has hit some bumps in the road. People with boxes of unwanted kittens have complained of being turned away because there was no room. A new partnership with PetSmart in Mount Pleasant has yielded homes for kittens every month.

The facility desperately needs more space, and a 1.8-acre lot adjacent to existing property has been donated by International Paper and will be the site of a new clinic and more animal space. The organization will concentrate on low-cost spay and neuter programs to reduce the number of stray animals and change public perception that it is not a dog pound.

Challenges lie ahead. There are dogs that have been trained to fight that can never be adopted. Stray dogs and feral cats continue to be a problem everywhere. Should the area be struck by a hurricane, thousands of animals could be left behind wandering aimlessly. An animal center can not be all things to all people.

St. Frances has a dedicated staff and a core of hard-working volunteers. One married couple volunteers there nearly every day.

It’s a noble effort that needs the help of more animal lovers.