The Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association's executive director says the shelter's annual euthanasia rate is now less than 10 percent, down from about 70 percent in 2010 - but those saved lives come with a cost and a need for community support.
Chelsea Staley said KCHA doesn't kill any animals due to lack of space for them or because they've spent a long time there. She prefers the term "lifesaving" to describe the shelter rather than "no-kill" because she doesn't want to imply the organization would never euthanize a suffering animal or one with an incurable behavior issue.
But she said the shelter's budget last fiscal year was about $1.6 million, about $500,000 more than it cost to operate when its euthanasia rates were much higher. The majority of donations - raised from events like Woofstock, which was held Saturday in Coonskin Park - go to animal health needs, like dewormer drugs, vaccines, heart-worm tests and trips to the veterinarian.
"We have a real, urgent need to raise those funds," said KCHA board member Libby Ballard.
Ballard said a large group of animals seized from a hoarder can instantly stress the shelter's pledge to not euthanize for space, and the organization is trying to give more animals to out-of-state rescue organizations. Staley said that each year, about 40 percent of the shelter's dogs already go to rescue groups from out of state.
Ballard said while West Virginia has no law requiring owners to spay or neuter their pets, other states have regulations that keep their shelter populations down and enable them to accept Mountain State animals. But animals leaving the shelter must be quarantined for 10 days before they're given to rescue groups to ensure they don't spread disease, so KCHA needs more foster homes to lodge pets for those short stays.
"We could send three times as many as we're sending now," Ballard said.
Woofstock was both a fundraiser and an adoption event held as part of a roughly weeklong celebration of KCHA's becoming a lifesaving shelter about two years ago. The celebration is called Empty the Shelter, though Ballard said that, unless the state addresses its spay/neuter problem, the shelter will never actually be empty due to the number of animals it takes in daily.
Suddenlink, the Petco Foundation and Joe Holland Chevrolet are paying for all adoption fees during the event, which ends Sunday with a 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. event at the PetSmart in Charleston's Southridge shopping center. BrickStreet Insurance and other sponsors have supported the effort.
As of Friday, Staley said about 100 animals had been adopted. At Woofstock - where KCHA supporters and their pets congregated despite the rain, like dedicated attendees of any outdoor festival - only two had been adopted as of about 1 p.m.: Linda, a Chihuahua, and Impulse, a Boston terrier mix.
Strategically placed in front of the adoption shelter at Coonskin was a cage of kittens: Bandit, Clark Gable, Little Bit and Tyrone Power.
Amidst the music, including a rendition of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," and events - like a dunking booth and the Charleston Area Dog Sports Club's exhibition of canines trained to bite a fleeing "criminal" in a padded suit - strolled the Sampson family with three dogs they adopted from the shelter over the past few years.
Seal, a pit bull mix, Kilo, a boxer, and Benny, a pit/hound mix, all wore tie-dyed shirts in the chilly weather bearing the Woofstock logo, which includes a cartoon cat with a flower headband and a peace sign medallion. Beth Sampson, of Charleston, said she and her husband, Randy, and son, Tony, came out to support KCHA. She said buying dogs rather than adopting means shelter dogs die.
"And I've found shelter dogs are truly the best dogs," she said.
Other groups that work with the shelter came out to the event, including the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee rescue organization, which also sold gear to support itself. Under the next shelter was Kanawha Valley Emergency Services, where Kate Spayed, a 16-week-old kitten whose two broken legs were saved through the work of veterinarian Allan McNeel, peered out from the warmth of the coat of veterinary technician.
Dorella Tuckwiller, president and founder of the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, said all the groups were there to save lives.
"The more people working together for that goal, the better," she said.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.