PAS offers safe haven to area's animals
The Panhandle Animal Shelter is proud to serve our community by providing a haven for the lost, abandoned, neglected and abused animals of Bonner County. Last year, 1,400 dogs and cats entered through our doors and we helped 1,383 find new homes or their “lost” families.
The shelter serves various needs in our community. We are the only stray dog drop-off location in our area. A majority of our canine occupants came in as strays and are waiting for their families to pick them up.
The dedicated staff and hundreds of volunteers who work at the shelter every day are focused on providing a nurturing environment with the goal to help them leave the shelter promptly either through owner returns or adoptions. It is because of this focus we have been successful in reducing our average animal length of stay in half since January 2011.
We work to help control our animal population by advocating spaying and neutering. Our animals are “fixed,” vaccinated and microchipped prior to adoption and we provide low-income coupons to families who cannot afford to neuter/spay their family pets. Our food bank supplies over a half-ton of donated dog and cat food to families requiring temporary assistance feeding their animals.
In addition, Panhandle Animal Shelter supports activities that encourage the human-animal bond. Many reports and statistics demonstrate the positive outcome of this mutually beneficial relationship. Our dogs leave the shelter each week to visit senior centers, rehabilitation centers, and the Bonner County Library in Sandpoint for the PAWS to Read program, which allows children to read to an unbiased listener, a dog.
We sincerely appreciate our community’s support of our thrift store. The thrift store provides quality merchandise to those in need and in return funds a large portion of our animal shelter. Our manager, Christy Syth, has been with us for almost a year and has done an amazing job stabilizing our pricing and keeping fresh merchandise on the floor.
Our organization does not receive state or federal tax funding. We are a private 501(c)3 non-profit and the flagship animal shelter for northern Idaho. Our animals are lucky to temporarily reside in an amazing building located 870 Kootenai Cutoff Road in Ponderay. We invite you to visit the shelter during regular business hours seven days a week, Monday through Saturday, noon to 5:30 p.m. and Sundays, noon to 4:30 p.m.
Your continued support of Panhandle Animal shelter with your monetary gifts and/or by volunteering is greatly appreciated as you help to make a difference in the lives of dogs, cats and their owners.
Further information or questions can be directed to Mandy Evans at mandy@pasidaho.org.
MANDY EVANS
Sandpoint
Panhandle Animal Shelter
executive director
and Panhandle Animal Shelter
Board of Directors