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VALLEY — Board President Dantz Frazer and Shelter Manager Amber Mingen talked about what’s been taking place at the Chattahoochee Humane Society’s animal shelter at last Thursday’s noon hour meeting of the West Point Rotary Club, held in the conference room at the main office of the Greater Valley Area Chamber of Commerce.

The local humane society was formed in 1973 in response to a new state law that required any Alabama city with more than 5,000 people to have an animal shelter. WestPoint Pepperell donated some land on Fairfax Bypass to serve as a countywide animal shelter. One was built at the site and has undergone improvements over the years.

The most recent improvement was an $80,000 expansion of kennel space for dogs. The City of Valley funded the project with Lanett and Chambers County picking up parts of the tab. The shelter was very much overcrowded with animals with just 16 kennel spaces for the dogs that were being brought there. It’s now up to 48, and those new spaces are fast filling up.

“We’ve just about filled it,” said Frazer. “Much has changed at the shelter. There has been an almost complete changeover in the staff. There’s a new atmosphere and attitude on the part of everyone there. We have volunteers coming out to walk the dogs and socialize with people coming by.”

Much progress has been made in recent years to the overall goal of having a no-kill shelter. At one time, the euthanization rate was peaking at 85 percent. A freezer was needed to store the remains of the animals that were being put down.

That euthanization rate is now down to the four percent range.

Most of the animals being euthanized now are either sickly or overly aggressive.

“Amber and her staff have been doing tremendous work with rescues and with fostering,” Frazer said. “Amber is in touch with up to 30 families who will foster animals in their homes.”

“This shelter was in a dark place at one time,” Mingen said. “There was a lack of communication and a lack of transparency. There was a stuck-in-their-ways mentality. If the shelter was full, it was tough luck to anyone bringing an animal there.”

The shelter is taking in more dogs and cats now but has a much better adoption rate than it had in the recent past. It has risen from 55 a year a few years ago to 370 this past year.

The local shelter is now working with a catch, spay, neuter and release program for feral cats. This allows a cat living in the wild to live out its natural life span without adding to the feral cat population.

“We have relationships with a vet tech program at Southern Union and the schools of veterinary medicine at Auburn and Tuskegee,” Mingen said. “There’s a big focus right now on building donor relations and impact in the community. We want to be seen as a resource for the community. We don’t need for dogs to be running loose on the streets. We can help with that.”

The CHS will be hosting a fun event on Saturday, March 15th. It will be taking place on the historic tennis courts near the Langdale Mill site. It’s the same location where the Christmas Merry Go Round takes place every year. Since it falls around St. Patrick’s Day, it will have the pet-friendly name St. Pawty’s Day. There will be a 5K run, a dog walk, costume contest, face painting, live music, food trucks and more.

“We’d like for it to be an annual event,” Mingen said.

“We want to be seen as a resource for the community,” Mingen added. “We want to promote education about animal care, for people to have healthier pets and to be able to keep them longer in their homes.”

Mingen said that she and her staff especially likes having school groups come for visits to the shelter. “We show them what goes on there, how we treat the animals and advice on the proper care for pets they have at home.”

“Amber and her staff are so dedicated,” Frazer said. “There are five or six main people there every day. They are doing the kind of job that cannot be done unless one has a true love of animals. They do what they do because of that. “

Frazer said the CHS at some point would like to have a play yard for the animals and a transport vehicle.

He encouraged local people to go to the Chattahoochee Humane Society’s web site to see how they can fill out an application to adopt an animal. “We vaccinate against common dog ailments,” he said. “We invite members of the club to come out for a tour of the shelter at any time. We would love to have you there and to see what’s going on.”