LIBERTY — All Dogs of Pickens Transport — known more locally as A.D.O.P.T. — has teamed up with the Pickens County Career and Technology Center in a partnership that benefits students and dogs rescued from Pickens County Animal Control.
“These students at the career center, many of them are looking to have a career as a vet tech or a groomer, but they were having problems finding subjects to work on,” said Pam Nalley, founder and director of A.D.O.P.T. “One of their instructors reached out to me and I thought, ‘This is great. This will work.’”
The county animal control has neither the insurance, funding nor the manpower to host adoptions from their facility. This is where rescue organizations like A.D.O.P.T. come in.
“When a dog’s time is up, that is, they’re scheduled for euthanasia, we pick them up. The animals are then fully vetted, groomed, spayed or neutered and evaluated for temperament. Then we transport them up to other organizations we work with in the (Washington) DC area,” said Jodi Currin, volunteer and events coordinator for A.D.O.P.T.
“The career center students bathe the dogs, trim their nails and shave them down if they need it,” said Currin. “These are skills they need to learn and it just made so much sense to join up with them. It’s a win win.”
Nalley and Currin both stated that the ultimate goal of A.D.O.P.T. is to turn Pickens County into a “no kill” county.
“Euthanasia rates are down 60 percent, that’s huge,” said Nalley. “We’re very proud of that number.”
ADOPT has been in operation for the past eight years.
“We’ve been flying under the radar,” Currin said. “But we’ve decided to go more public now in an effort to expand our services. People ask ‘Why DC?’ I’ll tell you. Here, there just isn’t enough homes for these animals. In DC, there are more people than animals. They can raise more money and they have more resources.”
“If we take in 36 dogs one month and we don’t move them out, we have no room to take in 36 more the next month,” said Nalley. “It’s a flow. We bring them in and we move them out. But it’s not just dogs. We’ve rescued 38 cats so far as well.”
Like all rescue organizations, A.D.O.P.T. is in constant need of volunteers as well as items like blankets, dog food and puppy chow. Donations can be dropped at 1050 Henderson Drive in Liberty.
All Dogs of Pickens County is a 501(c)3 non profit charity dedicated to saving unwanted but adoptable dogs that come through Pickens County Animal Control. For more information, visit their Facebook page.
