CAMPBELL COUNTY, TN. (WLAF)- Friends of Campbell County Animals (FCCA) had another successful year at its operations of the Campbell County Animal Shelter.

For 2024, FCCA provided care to 5,614 animals. This included intaking 1,782 dogs and cats, providing vaccinations to 2,152 community pets, and providing spay/neuter procedures for 1,629 animals. FCCA is proud to be providing numerous services that benefit the Campbell County Community. FCCA started is spay/neuter clinic in April 2020 and offers low-cost spay/neuter programs to Campbell County residents. This program is critical to addressing the overpopulation of animals in Campbell County and without an affordable option for residents, most of these animals would not have been spayed/neutered. Since the inception of this spay/neuter program, FCCA has provided spay/neuter services to 6,659 animals. Had these services not been provided, Campbell County would have experienced thousands of additional unwanted kittens and puppies.

FCCA is also proud of the success of its low-cost vaccination program. Since the inception of the vaccination program, FCCA has enhanced the health of 5,313 pets in Campbell County – thus reducing the risk of illness in the dogs and cats in the county and ultimately improving the safety of animals for the benefit of the community. FCCA continues its goal in alignment with the desires of the Campbell County Commission to be designated a “no-kill” shelter which simply means that they have a goal of a live-release of at least 90 percent recognized as an open intake county animal shelter, while they will have to euthanize some animals due to injury, illness, behavior or safety issues.

In 2024, FCCA achieved its goal with a live-release rate of 93% percent, an improvement from the live-release rate of 84 percent in 2023. For the year 2024, they reunited 81 pets with their families, had 398 adoptions in the community, and found homes for 1,217 animals that were transferred to animal rescue organizations, including through their partnership with the East Tennessee GoNorth program. The GoNorth program provides animal rescue transport services for numerous East Tennessee animal shelters, including the Campbell County Animal Shelter. FCCA recognizes that dogs and cats are part of the family and provided low cost euthanasia services for 70 pet owners during 2024 when the pet owners had to make the difficult decision to let their family pet cross the rainbow bridge for health reasons.

Since FCCA took over the county animal shelter in 2015, they have cared for 25,244 animals at the shelter. After ensuring the health and well-being of the animals, they united 862 animals with their families, had 2,749 adoptions in the community and sent 16,276 to outside rescue organizations. In total, they found homes for nearly 20,000 dogs and cats. Over the past 10 years, they have saved over 84 percent of the animals that came into the shelter. FCCA is also proud to help families in need of temporary assistance with their family pets. In 2024, they provided 45,290 pounds of dog food to 498 families in Campbell County. This has allowed the families to keep their pets at home versus having to surrender them and ensured that their pets were able to be fed. This service is provided as part of FCCA’s Critter Cupboard program, and this program is supported by pet food donations.

In 2024, they successfully launched a new program – Homeward Bound – to increase the enrichment of homeless shelter dogs of Campbell County. This is a virtual foster program that provides community volunteers the opportunity to interact with dogs remotely and in-person with the assistance of the FCCA staff at the animal shelter. This enriched interaction with the dogs allows FCCA to better communicate to potential adopters the various behaviors of each individual dog to help ensure they align potential adopters with the right dog for them. This program has helped them find homes for homeless dogs faster which benefits the shelter by relieving the constant over-capacity situation. If anyone is interested in adopting one of the dogs or cats in the shelter, please contact the shelter. You can view all of the adoptable pets on Petfinder and Adoption applications can be completed online via our website fccanimals.org. FCCA is a nonprofit organization that manages and oversees the daily operations of the Campbell County Animal Shelter for Campbell County. The purpose is to preserve animal life through humane sheltering and finding homes for the thousands of homeless animals that enter the shelter every year. Since 2015, they have cared for over 25,000 animals, spay/neutered over 6,600 animals, and provided low-cost vaccines to over 5,300 animals in Campbell County. These accomplishments were achieved through the extensive new programs launched by FCCA. They are pleased that these efforts have resulted in increasing the live-release rate for the animals of Campbell County to 93 percent in 2024. For more information about Friends of Campbell County Animals, visit their website at fccanimals.org.

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 2/13/2025-6AM)

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