Animal shelter in need of assistance

QUINCY - A volunteer group in Quincy is looking for businesses to sponsor animals at the city dog shelter to spur adoption.

Quincy citizen Angel Kirk is spearheading an effort to encourage Quincy businesses to sponsor a pet of the week in Columbia Basin newspapers featuring a photo and a write-up to encourage adoption.

Many people in Quincy don't know there is an animal shelter within the city, she said. There are five dogs at the shelter and three are ready for adoption.

Kirk recalls finding three stray dogs in an alleyway and feeling helpless because she didn't have a safe place to take them. She wants to prove to citizens the shelter can be a viable, productive place to take animals and adopt them from.

She said she wants to get the word out about the shelter to change the idea of it from being a pound.

Since the business sponsorship effort began, one dog was adopted Friday, Kirk said.

She fostered several dogs in the past and is currently fostering two puppies to socialize and prepare for adoption.

Kirk said her goal is to get the dogs adopted from the shelter as quick as possible because there is a shortage of volunteers and employees at the shelter. She said the longer the animal sits at the shelter the less socialized they may become.

Her daughter is interested in doing her senior project at Quincy High School to benefit the animal shelter by collecting donations of various pet care items. The project is pending approval from the school. Several other projects to increase awareness of the shelter are expected for the future, she said.

To sponsor an animal in the Columbia Basin Herald, contact Kirk at 509-787-3317 or Sam Houston at 509-765-4561.