Loving Companions Animal Rescue, Inc. (LCAR) is a non-profit, no-kill animal rescue shelter located in North Pole, Alaska. They provide a safe place to care for animals who are unwanted and abandoned. LCAR animals are cared for by volunteers who offer their time by providing facility maintenance needs, assist with social media sites, and/or open their homes as animal foster parents. The goal of Loving Companions is to promote a better life for animals, and provide the community an alternative to euthanizing unwanted animals. LCAR's promotion of a better life for animals include pet adoption, animal foster care, and providing low-income pet owners with services such as assistance with pet food, free boarding, and more.
Video Loving Companions Animal Rescue, Inc.
History
Loving Companions Animal Rescue, Inc.(LCAR) was founded by Donna Buck-Davis in 2003, and their doors opened in February 2004. Originally, LCAR's focus was to provide animal rescue for senior dogs. During Donna's time volunteering at the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB) Animal Shelter, she learned senior dogs were the least adopted and on the top of the list to be euthanized. Donna felt the need to provide a better alternative for the senior dogs, and came up with the idea for LCAR.
Due to the overpopulation of domestic animals in the FNSB area, LCAR's focus immediately grew from senior dogs to an all-inclusive animal rescue facility. Donna converted her two-car garage into the dog kennel facility, and the greenhouse into a cat sanctuary. The dog kennel facility also includes an area for birds, lizards, and fish. The first year LCAR opened, they rescued 100-plus animals, and 98 of the animals were adopted. Today, Loving Companions Animal Rescue, Inc. rescues and adopts over a 1000 animals annually.
Maps Loving Companions Animal Rescue, Inc.
Services
Loving Companions Animal Rescue, Inc. (LCAR) services range from pet adoption, limited spay and neutering services, free pet boarding to owners in need, and more.
Pet adoption
LCAR "maintains a flexible adoption program" (Loving Companions Animal Rescue, Inc., 2016) to ensure pets are placed in a forever home. Initial pet adoption begins with a 2-week trial period. After a successful trial period, the pet adoption is completed by receiving the adoption vaccination paperwork.
Available pets can be viewed in-person at the LCAR facility, or online at PetFinder.com.
Although the primary focus is pet adoption, LCAR often find themselves aiding in potential animal crisis situations.
Community service
LCAR is a resource for pet parents in need. The organization will assist low-income owners feed their pets through difficult times, provide free boarding to displaced pets, or organize emergency veterinary care. Each circumstance is reviewed to determine the need.
One service to highlight is the free pet boarding available to owners in emergency situations. Pet(s) can be unexpectedly displaced for various reasons such as the owner is in the homeless shelter, Center for Non-Violet Living (women's shelter), or home destroyed by a fire. Another scenario is a senior citizen living alone and is admitted to the hospital. LCAR will review and assess the circumstance and determine whether to provide in-home pet care, or arrange to retrieve the pet for boarding. Not every situation is an emergency, LCAR has also provided pet boarding to deployed military soldiers.
Spay and Neuter Interior's Pets (S.N.I.P)
Starting in 2005, LCAR offered spay and neutering clinics to Interior Alaska, mainly the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The clinic provided inexpensive spay and neutering performed by Fairbanks veterinaries volunteering their service. The S.N.I.P clinics successfully reduced the overpopulation of domestic animals in the FNSB. The clinics provided spay and neutering to over 800 animals per year until 2013. The S.N.I.P program funding ran out. With no funding available to continue the S.N.I.P clinics, LCAR coordinated with Animal House Veterinary Hospital to continue the low cost service to the public.
Community Involvement
The community can assist Loving Companions through volunteering, becoming a foster home, donating money or animal supplies such as pet food/blankets/cleaning supplies, or by calling the organization to ask what they need. They operating mostly independent from government and national non-profit assistance. Loving Companions depends on success by help from the community. Heavily driven by pet lovers in Alaska's interior, Loving Companions has a loyal following among pet parents, foster groups and finds its most common source of advertising to be word-of-mouth. The organization boasts a modest website and a volunteer operated Facebook, which helps hundreds of pets find happy homes annually. Donations received by Loving Companions often come from the community at large, although Donna has secured a spot among many other non-profits in the state as part of the "Pick.Click.Give." Campaign, United Way, and other Combined Federal Grants. This year, Loving Companions missed the 2016 "Pick.Click.Give" and will likely be in need of financial support.
References
Links
- Loving Companions Website. Nov 2016. URL: http://lovingcompanionsanimalrescue.org/
- Petfinder.com Loving Companions Animal Rescue, Inc. Nov 2016. URL: http://awos.petfinder.com/shelters/AK26.html
- Adopt-a-Pet.com. Loving Companions Animal Rescue, Inc. Nov 2016. URL: http://www.adoptapet.com/adoption_rescue/81424.html
- Freidman, Sam. Loving Companions shelter founder helps animals in need. Newsminer.com Dec 7, 2014. URL: http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/loving-companions-shelter-founder-helps-animals-in-need/article_8924ab48-7eae-11e4-8337-13d064338bb8.html
Source of article : Wikipedia
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