Message from OCHS

Dear Friends,

During this season of gratitude, we want to take a moment to express our sincerest thanks for the incredible support you’ve shown us. Your commitment and involvement enable us to continue our mission and make a lasting impact for homeless and neglected animals in our community. We want to share what we’ve been able to do with your help.

It’s been a busy year of wonderful outcomes and life-changing experiences. Our awesome staff at the Starkville Animal Shelter cared for 3,105 dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, snakes, birds since January. With intake up and fewer adoptions, many animals have spent weeks and even months in the shelter waiting for their second chance. For us, that has meant increased costs for staffing, food, vaccines, and other supplies. Your donations of supplies and funding have helped to keep us going.

Through our low-cost Spay and Neuter program, we altered 1,247 dogs and cats, ensuring that these animals would not produce more unwanted litters. We are excited to share that our new Spay and Neuter Clinic will open to the public in January 2025. It will offer low-cost spay and neuter surgeries for thousands of dogs and cats all over Mississippi. Your support of this program has enabled us to increase our ability to alter more animals, which has reduced the number of homeless and neglected animals in our community and region.

In 2025, our goal is to TRIPLE THAT NUMBER!

Through our Second Chance Fund, our team of skilled and compassionate staff and partners provided specialized care for hundreds of homeless and owned animals with broken bones, life-threatening illnesses and injuries, and other conditions that needed extra support. Your donations to this fund ensured that we had the resources to help them.

Through our partnership with the ASPCA, OCHS transported 1,650 homeless dogs and cats out of Mississippi to our fabulous partners up north who have a higher demand for adoptable animals. Our dedicated transport staff works with over 15 animal shelters, rescues and city and county leaders from surrounding counties, coordinating intake, processing paperwork, and loading animals onto the plane or truck for their ticket to their new homes.

We were able to do all of this because of YOU – your donations of funding and supplies, volunteering at the shelter and on transport days, sharing our posts on social media, fostering, and just being there. But with thousands of animals still in need, we aren’t done.

With more organizations closing intake, or shutting down altogether, requests for our help have skyrocketed. We realize we’re fortunate in many ways – we have city and county leaders who support us and believe in our mission, and a community of people who, time after time, rally around us when we need you.

As we end 2024, we are proud of the accomplishments we’ve made this year with your help. Our hope for 2025 is to make lasting change in our region – simply put, we want to attack the overpopulation problem through aggressive spay and neuter services, help end the suffering of homeless and neglected animals by providing access to care and services, and reduce euthanasia of animals who end up in shelters through no fault of their own. We want to continue to be a resource, helping our friends in Oktibbeha County and beyond. But to do this, we need your help.

We are grateful to have you by our side. Together, we are creating positive changes for animals in Mississippi.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season,
Michele

Michele Anderson, Executive Director
Phone: (662) 338-9093, ext 7
Email: manderson@ochsms.org

WAYS TO GIVE

FACEBOOK: Visit our FB Page and hit that donate button!

VENMO: @OCHSGIVE

PAYPAL: search for Oktibbeha County Humane Society

DIRECT ONLINE: Hit the donate button in our menu bar!

MAIL CHECK TO: OCHS, P.O. Box 297, Starkville, MS 39760

STOCK or IRA Roll-over: Email manderson@ochsms.org to request transfer information from our broker.

DROP OF DONATION AT THE STARKVILLE ANIMAL SHELTER: 510 Industrial Park Rd, Starkville, MS 39759

The Oktibbeha County Humane Society is an independent, local 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose mission is to serve as a resource for pets and their people.