Humane Society of Morgan County
Contact: Susan Kemenyas, Board Secretary          For Immediate release
Humane Society of Morgan County
Phone: 304-258-7841                                       TIME SENSITIVE
Email: Susan_Kemenyas@yahoo.com

HUMANE SOCIETY ANNOUNCES NEW POLICIES AT ADOPTION CENTER

The Humane Society of Morgan County, Inc. has instituted new animal population limits at their Adoption Center on Route 522 south of Berkeley Springs. These limits are being implemented to ensure the best possible health conditions for the protection of the animals in our care and to enhance the chances of finding good homes for the animals we do have. Limiting the number of animals that are placed under our care will enable us to operate within our budget and other resource constraints. The following animal levels will be reached within the next few months and will be maintained in the future:
We will care for up to 17 dogs at any one time
We will care for up to 40 cats in the Main Cattery building.
We will care for up to 20 newly admitted cats in our Cat Isolation building
We will no longer accept feral cats at the Adoption Center since they are not suitable for adoption as pets. The following exception applies. If in the course of our Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) program we find a feral mother with newborn kittens, we will place her and her kittens in our isolation building (space permitting) while she nurses the kittens. She will then be spayed and returned to her natural habitat. The kittens will be evaluated for their potential neutering, socialization, and adoption potential.
Effective immediately, the intake or acceptance of new animals will be done by appointment only and will only occur after an evaluation has been done and only if space is available, in accordance with the above stated limits.
We are instituting these policies to more effectively serve the community and the animals of Morgan County. We must operate within the limits of our available resources. We are increasing our off-site adoption efforts and will be contacting additional rescue organizations in an attempt to successfully place the animals under our protection more quickly. We will continue to place animals in foster homes to expand our animal care capacity. We will allocate more funding for Spay/Neuter programs to significantly and humanely reduce the number of unwanted animals in Morgan County. We will cooperatively work with local government officials to significantly and aggressively improve enforcement of animal-related state and county laws, and will be a tireless advocate organization for the health and welfare of all animals within Morgan County.

All of our funding comes from private donations, charitable grants, and the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle. No public funds come to us from federal, state, or local government. We receive no funding from The Humane Society of the United States. All funding is used to promote the humane treatment of animals and to operate our Adoption Center and its programs. It is our stated policy to value life and to never euthanize a healthy adoptable animal for space.

We are a private, non-profit charitable organization and none of our Board Members is compensated for their service to the organization. We do not have the ability or legal responsibility to accept every animal brought to us. Within the limits of our resources and our capacity we will accept animals that are healthy and adoptable.

Unlike the Humane Society, the Morgan County Animal Control office is legally bound to accept responsibility for sick, abused and abandoned animals that fall outside the scope of our purview.

Board of Directors, Humane Society of Morgan County, Inc.

For additional information about the Humane Society of Morgan County including a calendar of upcoming events, news and information related to the Humane Society including various ways to help support the adoption center, go to their website www.hsmc-wv.org.