By Cathy Spaulding

Phoenix Staff Writer



WAGONER — The Animal Humane Society of Minnesota experiences a shortage Muskogee area animal shelters would envy — a shortage of dogs needing adoption.

Animal Humane Society representatives visited animal shelters and rescue organizations northeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas this week to see some of the places where they get the dogs. Area shelters they visited included the Wagoner Animal Guardian Society (W.A.G.S.), Tahlequah, Sallisaw and Vian. They also met with Save our Strays of Gore and Going Home Animal Rescue and Transport of Tulsa, which take surplus adoptable animals to adoption facilities that face shortages.

“We’ve been working with groups in this area and we wanted to see the situation here,” said Julie Steller, a veterinarian who works with Animal Humane Society of Golden Valley, a suburb of Minneapolis. “We’ve been getting so many dogs from this area.”

Steller said the Animal Humane Society wanted to give the shelters guidance on what animals can be transported to the shelter.

“The biggest thing is unrealistic expectations of what we can do for them,” she said, adding that the society cannot accept certain dogs, such as pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

“They’re overwhelmed down here, she said. “People can’t afford to spay and neuter their dogs and they do not have the mindset that this is important.”

Connie Guthrie, who operates Save Our Strays, said shelters such as the Animal Humane Society operate in areas where there are stricter spay and neuter laws, resulting in fewer strays.

“They need to have dogs brought in,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie escorted the Animal Humane Society representatives to shelters in Cherokee, Sequoyah and Adair County, as well as Siloam Springs and Van Buren, Ark.

Save Our Strays takes stray dogs from area shelters, gets them treated for health issues, then takes them to shelters Minnesota, Chicago, Ohio and other states. Adoptable dogs then are put on the those shelters’ Web sites. Most dogs are spayed or neutered before they go to the other shelters.

Guthrie said she took 25 dogs to Minnesota about two weeks ago.

“One was gone by that Wednesday, another was adopted in two days,” she said.

She said taking dogs to Minnesota helps area shelters in two ways.

“We don’t have to put the dogs to sleep and it creates more places for a dog to be adopted,” she said.

Mike Nobles, founder of Going Home, said the organization takes van-loads of “at risk” dogs and cats to shelters in Minnesota, Tennessee, Utah, Colorado, Texas and Kansas.

“It is an outlet for us to save 20 dogs at a time,” he said.

Nobles said each trip costs $500 to $600, including lodging and gas for the drivers.

Nobles and his wife Kathy Nobles discussed their program when the Animal Humane Society representatives visited Wagoner. Representatives of shelters in Pryor and Choteau also attended.

Vicki McKay, a volunteer transport coordinator for W.A.G.S., said she visited the Minnesota facility and was impressed.

“They have an incredible facility,” she said. “They have a gymnasium facility for the animals, and an agility facility for rabbits.”

Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.