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Safe Animal Shelter continues signature charity gala

By Nick Blank nick@claytodayonline.com
Posted 3/16/22

MIDDLEBURG – The Safe Animal Shelter is returning to the Thrasher-Horner Conference Center for its “The Wizard of Paws” event that was delayed due to COVID-19 last year.

The annual in-person …

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Safe Animal Shelter continues signature charity gala


Posted

MIDDLEBURG – The Safe Animal Shelter is returning to the Thrasher-Horner Conference Center for its “The Wizard of Paws” event that was delayed due to COVID-19 last year.

The annual in-person charity gala at 5 p.m. April 9 is a way to raise funds and adopt animals, Safe Development Director Sandy Summerton said.

The organization did not host the gala in 2020 and the 2021 version was postponed.

“This is two years on and we’re finally back to having it,” Summerton said. “It’s our largest fundraiser of the year. It helps cover costs of veterinary care and brings in more animals each year.”

Summerton added that the shelter was able to get 1,600 animals, cats and dogs, into homes in 2020 and about 1,970 animals into homes in 2021. At any time, Summerton said, the shelter can have more than 2,000 animals pass through in a year’s time and that’s the shelter’s goal.

“Without this, we would really struggle, it’s big to catch up with adoptions,” Summerton said. “We want to be able to continue to adopt more and more animals. One of our biggest expenses is at the vet.”

Safe Animal Shelter is a nonprofit organization working to reduce the number of cats and dogs euthanized in Clay County, Duval County, Northeast Florida and the surrounding areas. It became Clay County’s first no-kill shelter in 1991 to provide housing for more homeless pets in the community until they could find a forever home. All services provided to the community are funded by individual and business donations, grants from charitable foundations, pet adoption fees, and fund-raising activities held throughout each year.

Summerton said the shelter is seeing an influx of kittens. However, additional animals mean more care that raises costs for the shelter.

“Each year, we keep increasing the number of animals we take in. That increases veterinary costs as well,” she said. “This (event) goes a long way to putting a dent in those numbers for us.”

For National Pet Vaccination Month, Petco has released about 1,000 vaccines for dogs and cats for the shelter to distribute. A community vaccine day will be held March 26 Orange Park Community Theatre, 2900 Moody Ave., for dogs.

On April 16, a similar event at the Safe shelter, 2913 County Road 220, will be hosted for cats. Both events are 9 a.m.-noon.