Oconee Humane Society receives New Van

Two years of planning and fundraising have come to fruition for the Oconee Humane Society (OHS). Nearly $55,000 in donations has paid for a new, customized van that can transport 25-30 animals at a time. This will allow unwanted dogs and cats locally to find forever homes up north, explains Lynn Fayard, dog adoption and transport coordinator for the Oconee Humane Society. “In order to save more lives, we could transport dogs and some cats up north. They have had spay/neuter programs in place for years and they do not have the pet overpopulation problem that we have. There are actually rescues that are empty up there, so a number of them through the northeast have several years ago started rescuing dogs from the southeast. So, rather than wait for a transport van to come from the north to visit us, which has happened several times already, we could as much as double the number of animals rescued if we purchased our own transport van.” The new van was purchased, customized and wrapped thanks to the generosity of donors, continues Fayard. “OHS is funded entirely by donations and we had specific fundraisers where the money went toward our van and we are just so grateful because it couldn’t have happened without our wonderful donors.” The OHS’s previous van could only haul eight dogs at a time and had over 200,000 miles of recorded travel.