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Animal group offers range of services

BUCKHANNON — A local organization called the Animal Outreach Project strives to change the lives of those in need — whether it’s a pet or a person.

In 2015, Animal Outreach Project was recreated to help out animals and pet owners, primarily focusing on spay and neutering assistance.

“We just felt like we really wanted to make a difference in our community,” said Samantha Atchison, vice president of AOP. “We wanted to find some spay and neuter assistance.”

The local organization has helped many pet owners of any income situation with the cost of spay/neuter and has provided assistance with funds to treat and care for pets.

Christy Lloyd and Marcella Garrison also work with Atchison on the project, and as the group became more aware of the expenses of owning a pet, they added a pet food bank to AOP’s services.

“Sometimes you’re just down on your luck. We get people that are in between paychecks or they got laid off or they had an unexpected electric bill, and you hate to see pets go hungry,” she said.

Atchison acknowledged there are multiple places for people to get food – the Upshur Parish House and several churches — however, it can be difficult to feed your pet if you’re unexpectedly low on funds.

“When you’re already worried about taking care of your family — your pets are your family too — so, we don’t want people to have to feel like, ‘Oh gosh, I can’t feed my pet’ or ‘I have to take it to the pound,'” she said.

And with the colder temperatures lingering this winter, Atchison said it’s been a busy season.

“This time of year, we’ve been super busy making sure that everybody has straw and everybody has adequate dog houses, and feral cats have shelters and things like that,” she said.

She noted AOP is not limited to spay/neuter assistance and food, but rather it offers many services to animals and pet owners.

“We’re trying to help reduce the number of animals that are abandoned or end up in the shelter through the spay and neuter assistance, or helping people to be able to take car of their pets,” Atchison said.

She added AOP also offers educational tools on the importance of spaying and neutering and proper housing for animals.

When the project started, Atchison said AOP was solely funded through fundraisers. Now, after researching, the group has invested time into applying for grants.

Because as Atchison said, “More money saves more animals.”

Just recently, the West Virginia Department of Agriculture awarded AOP $5,000 in funds through the Spay and Neuter Assistance grant.

AOP does have to provide a matching amount of the grant.

“So even though we are starting to get some grants, which is awesome and wonderful, we still have to do our fundraising and we still have to rely on the community a little bit because it’s never easy and it’s never free,” Atchison explained.

Since February is Prevent a Litter month, AOP is offering low prices for spay and neuter procedures.

For a dog up to 55 pounds to be spayed, the price is $45, and the price for a dog up to 55 pounds to be neutered is $35. A cat can be spayed for $30 and a cat can be neutered for $20. Applications do need to be sent in to be considered. More information is available by emailing animaloutreachproject@gmail.com or visit http://www.aopwv.org.

Surgeries will be performed at All Creatures Great and Small in Elkins.

Though this will be the first to offer this event, Atchison said depending on the success, AOP would like to offer it again this year.

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