Financial issues that the Randolph County Humane Society
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Dear Editor:
I recently wrote two Tail Talk articles outlining the financial issues that the Randolph County Humane Society has been experiencing. It's been a long, cold hard winter at the Randolph County Humane Society shelter with the van we use for transports taking its last trip, no longer transporting the animals that we are unable to adopt out to other shelters across the country where they don't have the problem of puppy mills and pet owners that refuse to spay and neuter to find their forever homes. The cold weather and heating bills have continued to deplete the coffers at a rate unknown in years past, and donations were down $10,000 over years past from the economic downturn, leaving the shelter between a rock and a hard place that was going to be its final hurrah if something wasn't done immediately. We didn't want to do subject all the animals that come into contact with animal control with an automatic death sentence, but we no longer had a choice. If every household in Randolph County put one dollar bill (or more if they were able) into an envelope marked "Save the Shelter Fund" and mailed it to the Randolph County Humane Society at PO Box 59, Sparta, IL, 62286 we could be saved. There is a small group of people has supported the shelter for years, and except for a few newbies, those same generous people came through again, but it can't be the same people doing the same thing year after year with no one else offering their support. Someone else needs to stand up and say these animals are important to me also. So Randolph County, we have enough to keep the doors open, for now, but accept the challenge. Our problems didn't end because we our death sentence was commuted by a couple of few months. Put $1 in an envelope today and get it to the shelter. This is an ongoing issue and if you don't step up we still could lose the best thing that ever happened to the animals in Southern Illinois. It is only through you that the Randolph County Humane Society continues to save lives, one by one.
Julie Gangloff, volunteer
Chester, Illinois