Raising the Roof at Corinth-Alcorn
“What people need to understand is that they aren’t collectibles.”This was a comment made by Corinth City’s ACO, Stephen, in reference to the number of pit bulls that populate the shelter and that he picks up in his work.“They all want certain colors. They should get a box of crayons.”We met Stephen shortly after we arrived at Corinth-Alcorn Animal Shelter. We’d just sat down to interview Charlotte, the director, when he arrived with a little hound mix who was young, terrified, and pretty adorable.
As I walked down the rows and one after another dog jumped up frantically trying to get my attention, I realized that’s what they were starved for—attention and love. In a shelter this size, that spends its limited money and manpower keeping the kennels clean and the water and food buckets full, there is not much leftover for individual dogs. How do you love and entertain and exercise 156 dogs?And yet, as one Facebook friend pointed out, the fact that these dogs were eager to meet us and wagging their tails means that their needs are being met on some level. In many shelters, you see shut-down dogs and fearful dogs.https://www.facebook.com/WhoWillLetTheDogsOut/videos/804791080000489/One dog is struggling, though, and Charlotte wanted us to see her. Wilma is desperately in need of a senior dog rescue. Wilma is an 8 or 9-year-old black lab mix who is still dog and people-friendly, but beginning to suffer in the shelter atmosphere.
The shelter goes through 1400 pounds of dog food a week. Yes, a week. Charlotte commented, “I find if you feed them plenty, they don’t fight.”I imagine that Charlotte has learned a lot of tricks to stretching her manpower and money. She is doing an incredible job with the resources she has been given. And maybe the most amazing part is that she is so positive and hopeful-- she loves these dogs; she believes in her community.The shelter has raised $340,000 for a new building but that is not nearly enough to build a facility to care properly for this many animals. What they need is grants or donations or a miracle.The shelter is a private nonprofit on county-owned property. The city gives them 70K and the county gives them 50K. The additional $100,000 it takes to keep the shelter running each year must be raised by the shelter.I asked how they do that and Charlotte looked at Nancy, the shelter secretary (and board member) and they laughed. “We do pretty much everything.”
They get some of that money through grants and adoption fees, but the rest they get anyway they can – through a stall they run at a local antique mall, crafts made and sold in the lobby, and even sitting outside the grocery store on a regular basis collecting donations.The county also gives an additional 10K for spay/neuter. The shelter runs ACSpay, a low-cost program that will spay/neuter (and give a rabies vaccine) to pets that belong to low-income families in Corinth and Alcorn counties.The Corinth-Alcorn Animal Shelter’s building was built before the civil war. It has been a school, a hospital (during the Civil War), and a Pauper’s Home (there’s even a Pauper’s cemetery out back).And now this history-laden building is quite literally falling down around them. It is WAY past time for them to have a new facility. Imagine what Charlotte and Luke and Stephen and their remarkable staff could do with a building designed to save animals.They certainly can. Now all they need is the money to make it happen.If you’d like to help, here are a few ways:Send much-needed items through their Amazon Wishlist.Donate directly to the shelter.
Until every cage is empty,CaraPlease help us let the dogs out by subscribing (button on right side) to and sharing this blog. You can also keep track of us on Facebook and Instagram.Who Will Let the Dogs Out (we call it Waldo for short) is an initiative of Operation Paws for Homes. If you’d like to contribute to our work, we encourage you to click on the how-to-help link above and give directly to a shelter. You can also donate to our work via OPH’s donation page by designating Who Will Let the Dogs Out in your comments.My upcoming book, One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues (Pegasus Books, July 7, 2020) tells the story of not only our foster experience but how Who Will Let the Dogs Out began. A portion of proceeds of every book sold will go to help unwanted animals in the south.
The shelter goes through 1400 pounds of dog food a week. Yes, a week. Charlotte commented, “I find if you feed them plenty, they don’t fight.”I imagine that Charlotte has learned a lot of tricks to stretching her manpower and money. She is doing an incredible job with the resources she has been given. And maybe the most amazing part is that she is so positive and hopeful-- she loves these dogs; she believes in her community.The shelter has raised $340,000 for a new building but that is not nearly enough to build a facility to care properly for this many animals. What they need is grants or donations or a miracle.The shelter is a private nonprofit on county-owned property. The city gives them 70K and the county gives them 50K. The additional $100,000 it takes to keep the shelter running each year must be raised by the shelter.I asked how they do that and Charlotte looked at Nancy, the shelter secretary (and board member) and they laughed. “We do pretty much everything.”They get some of that money through grants and adoption fees, but the rest they get anyway they can – through a stall they run at a local antique mall, crafts made and sold in the lobby, and even sitting outside the grocery store on a regular basis collecting donations.The county also gives an additional 10K for spay/neuter. The shelter runs ACSpay, a low-cost program that will spay/neuter (and give a rabies vaccine) to pets that belong to low-income families in Corinth and Alcorn counties.The Corinth-Alcorn Animal Shelter’s building was built before the civil war. It has been a school, a hospital (during the Civil War), and a Pauper’s Home (there’s even a Pauper’s cemetery out back).And now this history-laden building is quite literally falling down around them. It is WAY past time for them to have a new facility. Imagine what Charlotte and Luke and Stephen and their remarkable staff could do with a building designed to save animals.They certainly can. Now all they need is the money to make it happen.If you’d like to help, here are a few ways:Send much-needed items through their Amazon Wishlist.Donate directly to the shelter.Until every cage is empty,CaraPlease help us let the dogs out by subscribing (button on right side) to and sharing this blog. You can also keep track of us on Facebook and Instagram.Who Will Let the Dogs Out (we call it Waldo for short) is an initiative of Operation Paws for Homes. If you’d like to contribute to our work, we encourage you to click on the how-to-help link above and give directly to a shelter. You can also donate to our work via OPH’s donation page by designating Who Will Let the Dogs Out in your comments.My upcoming book, One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues (Pegasus Books, July 7, 2020) tells the story of not only our foster experience but how Who Will Let the Dogs Out began. A portion of proceeds of every book sold will go to help unwanted animals in the south.
