Workers faced a severe shortage of food for the animals last week

By Nicole Hines Staff Writer

The Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake was facing a hard reality just a week ago.

The shelter was down to the bottom of the barrel to feed its animals. Desperation was in the hearts of the directors who were facing a heart wrenching decision — euthanize dozens of animals or the possibility of the them starving.

Channel 8 WFAA News out of Dallas publicized the problem and phenomenal community support has created hope for the shelter and its animals.

“The outpour has been amazing,” HSCCL President Tamara Rhodes said. “But this is just a short-term fix.”

The initial response from the lake area community was an overwhelming amount of adoptions.

“Sunday we had to call in extra help. I understand (we) were six people deep waiting for adoption,” she said. “And I understand Monday morning, they were waiting to come in and adopt before we opened.”

Between the two days, a total of 25 animals were adopted from the shelter.

On top of the many adoptions that were made, several donations have also been made to contribute to the shelter’s food bank.

“We’ve had numerous individuals pull up with a truck full of dog food,” Rhodes said.

However, these donations will not fix the issue forever, not without the continuous support of the community.

Each month it takes about $1,500 just to feed the animals at the shelter.

“$1,500 a month doesn’t sound like much, and at first — it wasn’t,” she said.

Over the past year the shelter has received charitable contributions from the Cedar Creek Lake Rotary Club, the Friends Club in Gun Barrel City, proceeds from poker runs with the Cossacks biker organization and a few other organizations and individuals.

“But around the first of the year after the stock market dropped so severely, donations we were depending on to cover food and our utilities dried up,” Rhodes said.

The greatest expense at the shelter is it’s employees, although there are only four employed persons at HSCCL.

On top of that, the shelter must also pay utilities and take care of the animals.

After a while, the amount of work, funds and donations needed to operate is not a small sum.

Looking at last year’s budget, Rhodes discovered that it should have taken around $110,000 in 2008 to run the shelter and to get things done for the shelter.

According to Rhodes, a rough sum of about $30,000 was donated to the shelter last year.

“We’re working with the counties and municipalities to increase some rates,” Rhodes said.

Cities and counties contract with HSCCL to take in stray animals.

“We have no idea when we’re going to get money,” she said.

The main issue for the Humane Society is that they have no particular fixed solid income that is promising to its existence each month.

“Cities contract with us to take their stray animals and then we charge them $12.50 per animal,” Rhodes said. “Then Kaufman County and Henderson County pay a flat rate, an amount each month, that varies.”

She said the shelter gets $13,000 from Henderson County and Kaufman pays $30,000.

“The money that we charge them is basically for operating costs,” Rhodes said.

Annual fund raisers help HSCCL, but can’t be relied on for any set amount of money.

The four major yearly fund raisers are the HSCCL golf tournament in September; the antique car show in October in Seven Points; the art auction, which brought in around $1,200 this year; and the Cossacks poker run.

Walmart’s district store in Palestine donates dog food that has had damages to its packaging, all the society has to do is go pick it up.

“They have a program where about every six to eight weeks, we can go pick (the food) up,” Rhodes said. “We used to get about 12 pallets, now we only get three.”

This decrease in the amount of donation is due to changes in manufacturing.

“The manufacturers started double bagging,” she said. “It’s a lot thicker than it used to be, to keep it fresher longer and to prevent the packages from breaking.”

Funds that are donated go toward other things other than just feeding the animals, as well.

“The immunization program that we have, the spay/neuter programs and basically whatever medicines we need for the animals and any treatment for them, all those come from donation funds,” Rhodes said.

She said the cost to rid an animal of heart worms is $500, one of the most expensive procedures done to shelter animals.

Often times, the shelter will have to wait around and hope some one donates enough money to provide medical attention to the animal.

One local organization does offer some assistance in spaying and neutering animals.

“Friends of the Animals gives us a special rate for shelter animals,” said Rhodes. “We can’t afford to pay $50 an animal to spay or neuter.”

While the shelter has received many donations due to the recent coverage, Rhodes is concerned about future funding.

“The story will fade,” she said. “People will get back to their lives and forget about us, I am afraid.”

For more information — or to make contributions to the Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake or to adopt an animal —call HSCCL at 903-432-3422.

If you would like to donate food, just drop it off by the shelter at 10200 County Road 2403 in Tool. To send money, the mailing address is P.O. Box 43531, Seven Points, Tx, 75143 or go to the shelter’s web site at www.hsccl.com.