Wishbone’s 8th Annual Wag and Walk will be on Saturday, September 10, 2022 at Robinson Manor, 701 Marshall Street in Allegan. From 10am until 2pm, walkers with or without four-legged friends can meander down Marshall St., cross the 2nd Street Bridge and traverse Downtown Allegan as a fundraiser for the Allegan County Animal Shelter operated by Wishbone.
In 2009, Allegan County contracted with Wishbone to operate the animal shelter. As a county-run shelter, the facility kept animals 4 days. If an animal was not claimed or adopted, it would be euthanized. The euthanization rate was 90%.
Since taking responsibility for the shelter, Wishbone has demonstrated a 95% adoption rate. But the shelter receives little funding from Allegan County taxes.
Susan Smith of Wishbone shared, “Wishbone must fund raise over $220,000 each year above what the county provides in our contract. Fees collected at the shelter help with the operating costs, but the limited fees cannot save our shelter.”
“COVID and the economic struggles within our County have placed greater stress than ever before on the shelter in every aspect. Financial donations have dropped significantly since last year, and collecting county fees for the services at the shelter is a struggle, since the public we serve is struggling themselves to put gas in their vehicle or food on the table.”
The adoption rate has dropped for the first time in 12 years, while the intake rate has reached an all-time high. Therefore, the struggle is real.
“The 8th Annual Wag & Walk Dog Walk needs to raise $10,000 to help with current operations for the remainder of the year. This can be done with event sponsors for $250 or $100, vendor booths for $25, and the $25 registration fee to walk your dog thru downtown Allegan,” Smith stated.
Robinson Manor has graciously donated their grounds to the festivities. Each pre-registered participant will receive a T-shirt and goodie bag. Registration starts at 9:30am at the Manor. An organized walk with a shelter staff member and a shelter dog will lead off the dog walk between 10 – 10:30. However, dog walkers can come anytime throughout the day to do their own walk.
To extend the fun, event volunteers have included a Bounce House, Dunk Tank with the new control officer on the wet seat, vendor booths, kid face painting, dog demonstrations and dog contests to entertain the young and old alike. A DJ will entertain plus announce the demonstrations.
Vendor tents will open at 10am. Various dog demonstrations such as detecting SARS, a search and rescue demonstration, and dog obedience demonstration by Wishbone’s own professional dog trainers/behaviorist will take place starting at 11:30 am.
For creative folk, there will be a costume competition. Owners dress up along with their dog and win the best dressed owner and dog look alike award. Or the prize for the dog with the longest ears, shortest dog, tallest dog, and the list goes on.
This is intended to be an enjoyable event, but it is also quite serious. Smith stressed, “Wishbone has had a vision for Allegan County’s homeless animals. We achieved our first goal making the Allegan Animal Shelter “no-kill” by MI Animal Welfare state standards. Wishbone is gearing up to find support to continue our vision of a more humane facility with an upcoming capital campaign to help raise money to build a modular building on the old shelter’s location. This new Wishbone building can give much needed relief for the current shelter’s tight housing constraints we have daily for cat/dogs. It will help to provide adequate quarantine and a proper surgical suite to spay/neuter all the animals before being adopted.”
Lori Vanrywyk explained, “The Shelter now offers vaccines plus spay and neutering of all animals that enter the shelter. We are grateful to Allegan Veterinary Clinic for their support and the other contributors. Each year, we are about $220,000 short of what Allegan County contributes because we have no tax millage. The Wag and Walk event will be a great contributor to meeting our financial goal.”
Participants can have an even greater impact by making an additional donation, fundraising with pledges for the walk, or purchasing merchandise at one of the event vendor tents. All registration proceeds from Wag & Walk will support Wishbone Pet Rescue Alliance and the work done at the Allegan County Animal Shelter.
For more information please contact Wishbone at director@wishbonepetrescue.org or via phone 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday – Saturday at 269-455-5247. The team looks forward to seeing you at this event!
