LYNCHBURG, Va. – Jamie Kelly works at the Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control in Indiana, where they see about 10,000 animals a year and like many other shelters face overcrowding issues.
“The hard part of our job is we have to euthanized animals for space. We’ve been very fortunate that we haven’t had to use dogs in several years for space reasons. But we do see cats euthanized for space,” Kelly said.
She and several of her coworkers are in Lynchburg this week, learning from employees at the Lynchburg Humane Society.
“It’s been very informative. From fundraising, marketing ideas, just how you can profile a pet, which we’ve never thought about before,” Kelly said.
The group was approached by Best Friends – a national organization dedicated to stop the killing of cats and dogs in shelters—to learn from Lynchburg because of its programs and lifesaving efforts.
“We have implemented a lot of new programs to combat the influx of animals that come in or if we are facing a hoarding case that we have faced multiple times in the last few months, and how we handle those and what resources we use,” Jill Mollohan, associate director, said.
Kelly and the others with Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control will continue their training throughout the week and hope to keep sharing information with Lynchburg.
“Every community is different and I definitely think we’re getting a lot of tools here that we can take back to our community and a lot of great ideas we can kind of help tailor to what our community needs,” Kelly said.