Shelter director helps more pets find forever homes

New initiatives, outreach lead to less euthanizing.

When Leah Orr began working at the Best Friends Humane Society in Worth County, she wasn’t aware of the transformation she was about to encounter.

What started as an effort to help organize and restructure quickly saw her taking over as the shelter’s director. In this lead role, she reorganized staffing, grew partnerships and got the Best Friends facility in Poulan to reach a 90% live release rate in March, meaning 90% of the animals the shelter sees leave the shelter.

This month, the shelter reached a 92% rate. Three months of a 90% or greater release rate will bring the shelter to no-kill status.

When Orr first came to the shelter about 3½ years ago, she said it was doing a lot of euthanizing for space. Shelters across the country are being stretched thin with overcrowding related to post-pandemic issues and rising costs. Shelter Animals

Count, a national database of shelter statistics, estimated that the U.S. shelter population grew by nearly a quarter-million animals in 2023.

The Worth County humane society isn’t immune to this phenomenon.

“It seems like every year is a little bit worse,” Orr said. “Our numbers keep going up.”

She said in 2022, the shelter took in more than 1,400 animals. In 2023, it took in more than 1,600.

“We’re probably going to surpass that this year,” Orr said.

The shelter has a small staff of five, with only three full-time employees. It’s standard at most shelters to have

e animals per staff member in-house. Orr said they average about 10 to 15 animals per staff member at Best Friends.

“It’s just really hard to find people that want to do the job,” she said.

Despite these challenges, Orr and the staff have developed strategic initiatives and partnerships to move animals out of the shelter and make it a better space for the ones in it. Their work earned them the Sylvester-Worth Chamber’s 2023 Nonprofit of the

Year title.

Orr has begun networking with rescue facilities across Georgia and outside the state.

The shelter uses Pilots for Paws, which is a service that provides private planes that fly to Albany’s airport and pick up as many as five to 10 pets and take them as far as Maryland, Connecticut and Maine.

“So we don’t only have to rely on animals being adopted to get out of here, but they can also be transported out of here to other states,” she said.

Orr and her husband also transport animals outside of Poulan. She said they’ve transported as many as 30 to 50 at a time to states as far as Virginia. The shelter also started working with area veterinarians to help people spay and vaccinate their animals against rabies to help combat costs that might drive people away from adopting.

Orr said the shelter also is pushing for microchipping, which helps them find owners of lost animals and keeps animals out of the shelter, which also doubles as the county’s animal control.

Each day, the shelter’s Facebook page posts new missing animals in hopes of finding their owners.

The humane society also posts pictures of pets for adoption on its Facebook page and offers discounted prices some weeks to get people into the shelter and adopting. Some community members sponsor animals, paying for adoption costs.

Lindsay Roach, a Worth County resident, said her family members fell in love with their dog, Moose, when they saw his picture on Facebook.

He was 8 weeks old and tiny with dark brown coloring and a white spot on his stomach. Their previous dog was a rescued spaniel, so Roach said they were familiar with Moose’s mixed Labrador and spaniel breed.

Roach said when the family went to meet Moose, they knew they were bringing him home.

“He fit right in with my family immediately,” she said.

Roach has four children, and she said Moose responded well to al of them, even her child with a disability who is usually scared of dogs.

She said the family had never adopted from a humane society before, and she was shocked at how much actually goes on there. She said staff members were attentive and handled the adoption with care.

Orr also has transformed the humane society’s space into a nice place for the animals and those who volunteer or come to adopt. There’s fresh paint on the walls and a pet supply shop in the front. The biggest change is the volunteer partnerships Orr established.

She facilitated special education students from Worth County High School volunteering at the shelter as well as Beta Club and JROTC students.

A group from The Arc of Southwest Georgia, a nonprofit that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, also volunteers in the space.

Jakin Tillery, the Arc’s director of adult day programs, said a group of about seven to 10 visits the shelter every other Tuesday to volunteer.

Half the group works on the dog side, cleaning kennels. Tillery said they do everything that the employees would do. The other half works with the cats.

“It took months and months of practice and teaching them the skills, but they do it,” she said. “They’re very proud when they’re done.

Orr said the shelter could always use more volunteers — whether it’s helping in-house or at adoption events. She said now that the community sees how the shelter has been restructured, she’s had more volunteers, fosters and adoptions.