THURSDAY 8/29/19

APPLETON, Wis. ( WFRV ) – In mid-August, the Fox Valley Humane Association reached out to the public for help raising $300,000 by the end of the month, 14 days later the center looks to be about $200,000 short of that goal…but leadership says the glass is half-full.

“We’re not at our goal but we’re still very grateful to the community for such a wonderful outpouring of support,” said Vicki Prey, Director of the FVHA. When she says community support, in part, she’s referring to the fact that most of the donations were in $5, $10, $20, and $50 increments that added up to nearly $100,000. No small success story.

In addition to financial support, FVHA says partner shelters and other local and state shelters have kept them operational.

“We’ve been able to continue surgical procedures like spaying, neutering, amputations, and others with the help of our partner shelters,” Vicki told Local 5. “We don’t foresee any reason to end those programs at this time.”

But even with a silver lining, the month didn’t pass without regrets.

“I wish we would have chosen our words more carefully,” Prey said. “At no time did we intend to threaten the public, we were just trying to explain that it was a possibility.”

Prey is referring to the original cry for help in mid-August when they told the public animals may have to be euthanized if the $300,000 wasn’t raised.

Prey said FVHA received calls from angry residents in response to that strong statement. A statement Prey regrets.

“It was never our intention to euthanize any of our animals, but if the shelter is forced to close and the animals can’t be relocated or transferred out it’s a real possibility and we wanted to be clear about that.”

Though raising $100,000 has been very helpful for the shelter, falling short by about $200,000 hasn’t come without consequences.

“We’ve had to put on hold a few programs,” Prey explained.

Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), low-cost spay and neutering, vaccine clinics, and the Shelter and Rescue service, which provides spay and neutering support to other local clinics, have all been put on pause.

And even though there is a long way to go, the shelter doesn’t see a short-term future where the clinic will need to close down altogether.

As it stands, FVHA will extend its fundraising efforts for the foreseeable future, a link to the GoFundMe account can be found at the bottom of the original story below.

The humane association is also looking forward to Tailgate, its second of two major annual fundraising campaigns on September 11 at the Grand Meridian, the first being Bark in the Park in May.

For more on this story, read the original post below.

ORIGINAL STORY: FVHA calls on public for funding situation they call desperate

TUESDAY 8/15/19 2:08 p.m.

The Fox Valley Humane Association is asking for the public’s help to solve an over crowding and under funding issue they say is critical.

According to the organization, they currently have more than 300 cats and over 100 dogs up for adoption.

They say more people are surrendering animals that need medical attention while the number of adoptions and donations have dropped.

The FVHA has already suspended all surgeries and if the problems continue they may have to refuse animals, restrict other services and possibly be forced to euthanize animals with more challenging medical needs.

Around $300,000 is needed in the next several weeks just to bring the organization current in its financials.

The public can donate in person or by mail as well as online through a GoFundMe page the organization has set up.