The Columbia Animal Shelter has been working diligently to get its loving animals adopted, as well as spayed and neutered, and has had great results of late.
Shelter Coordinator and Animal Control Officer Mallory Belk credited volunteer Carla Garcia for securing a lot of donations for spay and neuter, toys and enrichment supplies for the shelter.
“She gets on her Facebook and posts almost constantly asking for sponsorships and donations towards the vet clinics so we can get them fixed,” Belk said.
All of the female dogs at the shelter will be spayed, rabies vaccinated and microchipped by the end of the month, and four males are scheduled to be rabies vaccinated and neutered next month. The shelter has a total of 11 spay and neuters scheduled between now and Nov. 9. 
There have been a number of recent adoptions as well, including four pit-lab mix puppies that were dumped at Marion Pet Care and a 10-month-old Australian Shepherd mix named Dutchess. Belk said the puppies were full of hook worms and anemic when they were picked up, but they were able to get them dewormed and fully healthy quickly to be adopted. As of press time Tuesday, there was still one available.
Thirty dogs and cats have been transported to northern states so far this year to reach their forever homes. Before they are transported, they have already been adopted by families. They first go to rescues, which do house checks, veterinary checks and vet potential owners’ references to make sure they are going to a good home. 
“When they get there, the following day they will have an event where people can go pick up their pet. They already have a home to go to and don’t have to sit and wait,” Garcia explained. “Northern states have laws that will protect them completely, so you don’t have to worry about them getting mistreated.”
There have been a lot of senior high school students volunteering at the shelter to satisfy their community service requirement for their senior projects, and Belk said they have done a tremendous job helping to take care of the animals.
“It’s like my favorite time of year when seniors are crunching to do their senior project stuff,” Belk said. “They will walk the dogs and play with them. Even they will come in here and say, ‘There’s not a single dog that has anything mentally wrong.’ There’s not. They are all really, really good dogs.”
The shelter recently picked up a pit mix behind 98 One Stop that had been shot in the eye, as well as other places. The dog, now affectionately known as “Buckshot,” was taken straight to Columbia Animal Hospital for surgery. By the time Buckshot was taken for surgery, the pellet was already out of his eye, so it was sewn shut. While Belk said it’s unknown yet whether he will be able to see again out of that eye, he is in great health despite not being expected to survive when he was first rescued.
“He goes back this week to get his stitches out to see if he can see, but he’s been doing amazing,” Belk said. “He’s not even aggressive.”
Another recent pickup was Bolt, who was basically skin and bones when he was found on McNeese Street. Belk and Garcia said he was extremely weak when he first arrived, but in a short time he has already started to gain weight and had his energy restored.
Columbia Animal Shelter Coordinator and Animal Control Officer Mallory Belk shares a moment with Bolt, a recent rescue who was found on McNeese Street.
The work is hard and not always pleasant when they have to spend hours a day cleaning up after the dogs and cats, but neither Belk nor Garcia would trade it for anything.
“It gets rough. There are days where I don’t want to get out of bed, but I do it anyway because all of the dogs and the cats need us,” Belk said.
“I love it here. I’ve been volunteering for a while — June made a year — and I love it. It’s my happy place, as sick as that sounds. I enjoy scooping poop because it’s about caring for the animals. It’s really rewarding when they come in as sick as Bolt did because you see them perk up, fatten up and get happy before your eyes. And that happens because you cared.”
As important as the people who run the shelter are, the people who are willing to adopt shelter animals are just as crucial. One of those people is Danielle Goar, who has lost count of how many animals she has either adopted from the shelter or took in instead of bringing them to the shelter.
“All the dogs that have been found on the road, if the shelter can’t take them, I usually just take them in and bring them home. I’m definitely an animal lover,” she said. “Animals are like family to me. It’s people’s place to take care of them.”
Goar’s most recent adoption was Oreo, a beautiful white and black dog she brought home a few months ago that has already become a part of her family.
“He’s very good. He’s very loving and a really, really good dog,” she said.
Four years ago, Goar adopted Sassy, who was already 16 or 17 years old. Goar feared that her home would be Sassy’s hospice facility, but Sassy is as full of live as ever and still going strong.
As many happy homes are created by the shelter, it still has more than 20 animals needing their forever home.
Walking through and touring the shelter makes one thing abundantly clear — the people who run it care so much for the animals they take care of, but they can always use more help.
