Different Hats: Rescue Profile
Different Hats
Working with two different
rescue organizations keeps Sarah
Skoglund very busy
By Greg Presto
For Sarah Skoglund, getting into rescue was personal. “The first dog I had as an adult had a lot of medical problems, and I saw a newsletter about such problems from the League,” she says. “I started to volunteer, and the rest is history.”
The “League” Skoglund refers to is the League for Animal Welfare, a nonprofit, no-kill shelter founded in 1949. And while her current pets—Harvey, a beagle mix; Chunky Monkey, a 5-year-old English Setter; and three cats, Evil, OC, and Petal—are all of sound health, Skoglund’s work with the League has not ceased. The 37-year-old marketing consultant has served on the organization’s board of directors for 12 years, and as president for seven.
“[Our] main goal is to help stray and abandoned companion animals in the greater Cincinnati area,” she says. “We make sure they’re medically sound, spay or neuter them, and find them proper homes.”
Under Skoglund’s direction as president, the League moved into its new facility, a 10,000-squarefoot shelter in Batavia, in 2000. Currently, the League houses up to 100 cats and 40 dogs, and adopts out about 700 companion animals each year.
“Unlike a county shelter, which euthanizes in situations of overpopulation, we can only take animals until we’re full,” Skoglund says of the League. “And we stay full until we find homes for some of the animals we have.”
But no matter how big a facility the League might build, she says the problem of euthanasia won’t be solved.
“You can’t build your way out of pet overpopulation,” Skoglund says. “If we built 10 more facilities like the League’s shelter in Cincinnati, we’d still be full. The only way to end animal euthanasia is through education and aggressive spay and neuter campaigns.”
To that end, the League also participates in age-appropriate education in the schools and the community.
“When Joe Public allows his dog or cat to have a litter—even if they find homes—he’s adding to the net population in an irresponsible way,” Skoglund says. “If guardians don’t take the time to have those kittens or puppies spayed or neutered, the population grows even further.”
To help control population through aggressive spay and neuter campaigns, Skoglund is also a member of the United Coalition for Animals (UCAN), a Cincinnati-based group devoted entirely to spay and neuter services.
“Spay/neuter surgeries are as important as education and shelters,” Skoglund says. “Unless you can slow the growth of the population, you’ll never stay ahead of the problem.”
As a member of UCAN’s board of directors, Skoglund helps raise funds to meet the group’s main goal: opening and operating a high-volume spay/neuter clinic. The organization plans to open the clinic by late 2006, and hopes to perform 8,000 spay/neuter surgeries in the first year alone. In time, their goal is to reduce the animal population being euthanized by 70 percent.
“This is the power of this surgery,” Skoglund says. “If everyone had 70 percent less population to deal with, it would become a manageable problem. Animals in county shelters wouldn’t have just three days to find a home, but three to six months.”
Raising the money for such an endeavor has been hard work for UCAN, though the group has been creative. Much of the organization’s funding comes from a nonprofit consignment furniture store in Cincinnati called Pedigree Interiors, which donates a portion of its proceeds to UCAN.
“For those who can’t support UCAN and the local animal population through donations or adoption, this is a great opportunity to do so in a different way,” Skoglund says.
But until the day comes when the new clinic is open, all of the League’s animals are adopted, and animal population is under control in her area, Skoglund plans to keep plugging away.
“We have a responsibility to make a difference in our community as a whole,” she says. “We will stop killing healthy, adoptable animals.”
