March 29, 2024

Jasper County Animal Rescue League to hold fundraiser

The Jasper County Animal Rescue League has been providing a place to stay for many animals, and all with a restricted budget.

They are always looking for help from volunteers.

“The main thing that we need volunteers for is adoption events that we do around town and also we take cats to Des Moines to Petco,” JCARL’s Head Animal Control Officer Jill Harter said. “We just took up five today. We took up six last week, and they were all adopted within a week. So normally, about once a week, we take up about five or six.”

There also is a high demand for dog walkers.

“People who want to volunteer have to be 16 or older,” Harter said. “The dogs don’t usually get a walk unless someone is here to walk them.”

JCARL receives more kittens at the shelter than any other animal. To help make kittens’ stay more comfortable, they are hoping to raise enough money to make a kitten play area

“We are trying to make a room for kittens, and have it set up so that they have a place to run around and play,” Harter said. “We are really not sure yet on the design.”

They are hoping to convert a section in their lobby and fill the area with plenty of toys for the cats to play with.

“We do have a big scratching post that has a house that we are thinking about putting in there, and boxes,” Harter said.

It does not take much to entertain a cat. Many kittens are entertained by simple items like string.

Spacing has become an issue for JCARL. They are hoping to raise money to build a shed for additional storage space.

“We’re going to have a fundraiser called ‘Raise the Roof,’” Harter said. “We are trying to get enough money raised to build a garage or storage area to store stuff.”

Currently, no location or date has been chosen but they are hoping to have one set up soon.

JCARL appreciates all items that are donated, but they wanted to inform the community that they are in need of leashes and cat food.

“We need wet cat food, patte style. We use that for kittens that can’t eat hard food,” Harter said.

JCARL also receives exotic pets as well. Being in around a farm community, they sometimes receive farm animals,

“If we get horses we call Des Moines Animal Rescue League,” Harter said. “We’ve had two since I have been here.”

There are no restrictions to donate items to the shelter. They will even take opened bags of food.

“We need food and money,” Harter said. “We have different funds to where our food goes. We have a spay and neuter fund, which goes to all the spay and neutering of the cats. That will be starting for dogs too. We have our medicine fund, which covered medicine for sick animals. We had a dog that came in with a broken leg, and it covered that. It pretty much covers all the vet bills besides spay and neutering.”

Staff writer Matthew Shepard may be contacted at (641) 792-3121, ext. 425, or at mshepard@newtondailynews.com.