Front Royal’s Animal Shelter ends 2023 on a high note – still ‘no kill’ after 10 years

In a year-end report to “friends and supporters of the Humane Society of Warren County,” Interim Humane Society Executive Director Kayla Wines highlighted the society’s Julia Wagner Animal Shelter’s ability to continue as a “no-kill” shelter a decade after its initial designation with an annual “save rate” of 96 percent for 2023.

“This is an incredibly high achievement for a shelter, especially a rural shelter serving a population of 45,000,” Wines said, after offering a “personal thank you for all the kind words, positive thoughts, love and support you have shown for our mission.”

Interim HSWC Executive Director Kayla Wines and friend – Royal Examiner File Photos

Wines, former Shelter Manager to the then Society Executive Director Meghan Bowers, fired last summer after three years on the job for allegedly “mismanaging” her employees, spoke of the successes the shelter has enjoyed with the establishment of an off-site spay/neuter clinic which, since its inception in 2021 has completed some 8,000 surgeries, hosted seven quarterly rabies and microchip clinics, and provided more than 650 free rabies vaccines to community pets. The clinic is situated at 840-B John Marshall Highway, just east of its intersection with Commerce Avenue in the commercial strip behind the CVS Pharmacy. Wines also credited Petco with providing 600 free feline and canine distemper vaccines to county pet owners.

The following year (2022), Wines helped Bowers establish and open HSWC’s “Pick of the Litter” Thrift Store, also off campus and in the same Front Royal downtown commercial area at 450 Commerce Avenue just northbound from the Commerce/John Marshall intersection, which in 2023 celebrated its first year anniversary.

“We are blessed to live in a community that is especially generous with donations — the store is packed to capacity with affordable items — and we are happy to partner with (Front Royal’s) Department of Social Services, House of Hope, and the Thermal Shelter, to provide necessary items such as clothing, shoes, winter wear, pet supplies, house wares, furniture and more,” Wines said of distribution to families in need with pets, in calling for donations to offset the costs of medications, boarding, proper nutrition, and kennel enrichment for animals inside and out of the shelter.

She described donations in terms of what they may accomplish: “A donation of $25 can feed three cats for a month; $50 can de-worm a litter of puppies; $100 will pay to spay or neuter and vaccinate a cat; $200 ditto for a large dog; and a donation of $500 provides the full cost of veterinary care, exams, medications, and vaccinations, for a litter of sick kittens.”

All in all, Wines painted a highly successful year for the shelter, paying tribute to “a network of dedicated staff, volunteers and foster families, established partnerships with local veterinary practices to treat and heal our furry friends, partnered with Petfinder and local news outlets to help spotlight them, and partnered with other shelters and rescue organizations to increase HSWC resources.

Another file photo, this one of a shelter dog looking for a forever home; and below, a Wagner Shelter worker checks on the feline section, also waiting on forever homes.

Two other special programs include the shelter’s “Hand in Paw” program and its “Pet Food Pantry,” with “Hand in Paw” providing $10,665 in funding this year for emergency veterinary care, and the Food Pantry offering nearly 50,000 pounds of pet food, including for pet-owning families in need.

“These special programs proved to be a vital necessity for the community in preventing excess intake into an already overcrowded shelter system,” Wines concluded.