ROGERS, Ark. — It's an issue shelters across the state continue to see, too many animals and not enough space. The NWA Humane Society in Rogers is on a mission to help fix that issue, in part by transporting the animals to places where they can get the best support.
"We transport dogs from shelters that are at maximum capacity to shelters that are needing dogs. And there's a lot of reasons why their shelters are empty there, a lot of spay and neuter laws are different there" said Clayton Morgan, Director of the NWA Humane Society for Animals.
To make this process easier for shelters in our area and surrounding states, Morgan decided to build the NWA Transport Hub. It's a 3,000-square-foot space that used to be their old shelter. It can house over 30 dogs and will be a one-stop shop that provides drivers with a safe place to rest, recharge, and refuel. Drivers can house their dogs there overnight before continuing on the rest of their journey to the northern states.
"[We're] helping dogs from places in Texas or Florida. They come here, it's halfway, and then they can go on to their destination" said Morgan. "Let the dog spend the night. They can go to a hotel, get sleep, food, get their batteries charged."
It'll also be a safe meeting spot for local shelters to load up or meet other transports to do paperwork or finalize medical records. Morgan said the facility is the first of its kind in Arkansas.
We'll market the dogs to different areas, and on the night before the transport, we'll meet them, get them here, get all the paperwork done, and the next day, the transport rolls in," said Morgan. "Before we had this we'd meet in a parking lot. This is a lot safer and there are places for the dogs to exercise, and it's and we've got cover if it's raining, things like that."
The renovations on the old building took about 16 months. The NWA Humane Society is hosting a grand opening for this new facility on October 6. from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The Artemis Project in Fort Smith is another rescue that relies on transporting their animals. They transport to states like Colorado, Michigan, and New York.
"We've transported around 200 animals this month, which is a pretty huge deal," said Mary Scott, Medical Director of The Artemis Project. "We find great rescue partners that we trust and we have a good relationship with them. They will post the animals that we have at our shelter up for adoption and foster in their communities."
Scott said these animals receive much more attention in states where their kennels are empty, and this new hub will provide more opportunities for shelters to reduce their crowding.
"Having a hub like that is giving a lot of these smaller rescues a lot more opportunity to transport their animals. It's really providing a big community effort where multiple rescues can work together and find these animals homes," said Scott. "Just getting a small glimpse of what we're able to do with the local rescues putting their animals on our transport I can't imagine how big of an asset this transport hub is going to be for Northwest Arkansas."
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