Animal shelter calling for help

With power off, supplies sought

— About 400 dogs and cats were toughing out the cold weather at the Pulaski County Humane Society animal shelter Thursday as the facility, without power since Christmas Day, struggled to operate.

Humane Society volunteers put out a call for generators, blankets, bedding and donations of Purina dry food to help the animals through the blackout. They also asked people willing to foster some animals for a few days to go by the shelter during daylight hours. The facility’s phones are also off-line.

Most other Little Rock area shelters operated on generator power or were unaffected by the power failures. More than 75,000 Pulaski County customers were still in the dark Thursday.

The Humane Society shelter at 14600 Colonel Glenn Road is in an area with a lot of rural roads, downed trees and broken power lines, Pulaski County Humane Society President Christine Henderson said.

“We’re most in need of warm bedding and blankets,” she said. “The laundry is down, so I just took a truckload to my house to wash, and I’ll return that tomorrow.

“If people have generators to donate or that we could borrow, we would make sure that all of them get returned to their rightful owners, and we’ll take good care of them.”

Henderson said the animals are fed and clean, and are pretty warm for most of the day, but with temperatures dropping into the 20s and teens at night, they need some help keeping warm.

“We were told it may be up to a week before we get power back because of the area we’re in,” she said.

“We had lots of people come and foster pets a few years ago during a similar storm, and a lot of those animals never made it back because people fell in love with them. If people have room, we’d love for them [the animals] to find homes.”

Henderson said the store where the shelter gets its pet food is just down the road but has been closed since before Christmas because of the weather. She said the shelter has enough food for now, but donations are always welcome.

Anyone wishing to make donations or volunteer to foster animals can call Henderson at (501) 258-4580.

In Little Rock, the Animal Village — a city-run shelter — escaped with no storm damage and still had electricity Thursday.

“Our employees went to pick up the ones [workers] who were snowed in or couldn’t get their cars out, and all the animals were fed and watered and taken care of,” said Animal Village Director Tracy Roark.

“We don’t have any large animals at this time. We’ve got all cats and dogs, so we don’t have to worry about where to house them.”

The Animal Village was open during normal hours Thursday, after city services — including City Hall — reopened about noon.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/28/2012

Upcoming Events