12/30/2024
Message to our team of supporters, sponsors and donors in closing of 2024:
While we acknowledge that 2024 was a challenging year in many ways, and many are anxious to begin a new year, we at CARA feel like 2024 hit us a little differently than previous years. We had many realizations in 2024, and we are prepared to take that knowledge with us into 2025. But as a whole, 2024 has been good to us at CARA.
We saw so many owner surrendered pets in 2024, and while we admit that many of those were unjustified, we will also tell you that many of the situations we were presented with cut to the bone. Many were the result of life changes and hardships that families didn’t ask for, and giving up pets was a painful choice that many were forced to make in their efforts to provide for their families. 2024 has been a very difficult year for many families and the pets they loved. Sometimes it really does come down to choices and making priorities, and when a family is struggling to feed their human children, it’s hard to criticize parents for putting their human children first. We just can’t.
We have always worked extremely hard for our shelter animals, but what 2024 has taught us is that we need to work harder for the humans in our community. We need to push harder for spay/neuter and we need to continue to microchip all the pets we can. We need to strive to do more to help in hard times and times of suffering. We need to judge less and provide solutions more, even when we can’t always physically take the pet. And we are prepared to go into 2025 with that mindset. We pledge to amp up our efforts to make a bigger difference for both the pets and the humans of our community. We have many ideas of how to better accomplish that goal. Compassion is a big word, and it is also much of what is missing in our world.
2024 has also been a year with much fewer local adoptions and transfers to Northern partners. The animal crisis we have seen in our state this year has made rescue much more difficult for most of us. As most of y’all know, our priority is the care of our shelter animals and that revolves around our capacity for care. It’s not about how many open kennels we have, or how much space we have. It’s about how many animals we can effectively care and provide for, without slighting any of those. Staffing has been a huge issue for us this year, and staffing is monumental when we center our abilities based around our capacity for care. Our animals deserve adequate time outside, individual love and affection, as well as food, vetting, and the other basic needs. We will not fill our building up to watch them sit in kennels all day for an unknown amount of time without all of their needs being met. That puts us in the position of being a limited admission shelter. We’ll take the insults and bashing we get for not being able to help every animal we’re asked to help, because again, we work for the animals that are under our care. They are and must remain our first priority.
400 seems to have been our magic number for 2024. Intake number was just under 400, we placed just under 400, we spayed and neutered right at 400 animals (both shelter and public), and we microchipped 350 animals for the public, in addition to our animals. We also managed to help place just under a hundred sweet animals that were transferred to us from our partners at MARL. Those are also our community animals and we’re proud of our relationship with them.
While those numbers are certainly lower than numbers from recent years, given the fact that local adoptions and transports have decreased so dramatically, we are still proud of the work we have done this year, and hope to see that pattern improve a bit in 2025. Again, it’s not in anyone’s best interests to bring in high numbers of animals without having the outlets to place them safely, or without having adequate staffing to care for them. Kennel life is definitely not desirable, not for the animals, or for us to witness. We will never go back to housing hundreds of animals with no out plan. They deserve better. Being that temporary resting spot for animals in need is the goal. We have and will continue to strive for that.
All of that said, we owe every bit of goodness we have been able to accomplish in our 20+ years of existence to you, our donors, sponsors, and supporters. Without the incredible support from our community, we would cease to exist. Don’t ever think that we don’t know that, and deeply appreciate your support. We are only as good as our community allows us to be, and we are blessed with a community who understands the assignment and the needs, and supports our efforts. We pride ourselves on being good stewards of your donations, and stretching those funds as far as possible. There is no earthly way to convey to you all how very thankful we are.
In closing, thank you from the very bottom of our hearts for seeing to it that 2024 has been a good year for CARA and the animals we love and work for. For anyone who may still be interested in making a tax deductible, year-end contribution, we would greatly appreciate your support to begin 2025, and hopefully, another great year in our world of rescue and sheltering. Thank you truly seems so very small. ♥️
(Pictured in the graphic below, are 8 beautiful reasons why your support is so critical to our mission. This brand new family was recently left in a crate on the side of the road, within hours of Mom giving birth. Because of YOU, our team, we were able to quickly scoop them up and bring them to safety, knowing that you guys would help us to help them. And you did. Our gratitude is huge.)
PayPal is [email protected]
Online donations can be made on our website at carams.org.
Our mailing address is:
CARA
P. O. Box 231
Clinton, Ms 39060
