{"id":50131,"date":"2020-12-01T12:46:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T19:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-no-kill-shelter-struggles-to-keep-doors-open-during-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2020-12-01T19:46:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T19:46:08","slug":"durango-no-kill-shelter-struggles-to-keep-doors-open-during-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-no-kill-shelter-struggles-to-keep-doors-open-during-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango no-kill shelter struggles to keep doors open during pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Annie
Annie Anderson, owner of Annie\u2019s Orphans, a local no-kill dog shelter, rescue and sanctuary, plays with puppies that were born at her facility south of Durango. The shelter is struggling with funding this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Like many other organizations that rely on donations and fundraisers, Annie\u2019s Orphans, a local no-kill dog shelter, rescue and sanctuary, has experienced a significant drop in funding as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Annie Anderson, who runs the shelter, said the organization relies on summer and winter fundraisers for a large portion of its budget. The summer fundraiser is usually a dinner that features a live and silent auction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our main fundraiser that keeps the doors open,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

\"Daisy,
Daisy, a resident at Annie&#x2019;s Orphans, a local no-kill dog shelter, rescue and sanctuary, gets excited to see visitors at the facility south of Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The winter fundraiser is centered around \u201cgiving trees\u201d in local businesses. Anderson said both fundraisers were canceled this year because of in-person COVID-19 transmission risk. Anderson estimated the shelter will lose $40,000 to $50,000 because of the canceled fundraisers.<\/p>\n

Annie\u2019s Orphans has been in operation for 34 years, and Anderson estimated nearly 3,000 dogs have come through her shelter. The dogs come from a variety of places: owners who can no longer keep them, stray dogs and dogs that would otherwise be euthanized by shelters.<\/p>\n

Anderson said about half of the 65 dogs that live in the sanctuary will likely never be adopted because of behavioral issues.<\/p>\n

A quarter are special-needs dogs and the remaining are adoptable.<\/p>\n

\"Annie
Annie Anderson, owner of Annie&#x2019;s Orphans, a local no-kill dog shelter, rescue and sanctuary, feeds a few treats to Murphy, who is missing a leg and has been a longtime resident at her facility south of Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Chris Nelson, director of Animal Services at the La Plata County Humane Society, said Annie\u2019s Orphans houses many dogs that need long-term care and are not easily adoptable. Nelson said nonprofits are struggling across the board. The Humane Society Thrift Store, which helps fund the Humane Society, has lost about $300,000 in revenue since the beginning of the pandemic because of closures and capacity restrictions.<\/p>\n

Joan Thielen, spokesman for the Dumb Friends League, the largest nonprofit community-based animal shelter in the Rocky Mountain Region, said the league receives a large amount of its funding through in-person events, so the pandemic has presented challenges in that regard.<\/p>\n

However, Thielen said the league transitioned many of its events to a virtual format and has been overwhelmed by the support from the community. Overall, the league, a Front Range-based organization, is not experiencing the same kind of losses as the local shelters.<\/p>\n

\"Puppies
Puppies play at Annie&#x2019;s Orphans, where they were born south of Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Anderson said her team of volunteers has been busy trying to make up the lost money through fundraisers on Facebook and GoFundMe<\/a>. The team is also working on creating an online auction to replace the canceled summer event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have to think positive. My shelter isn\u2019t only a shelter, it\u2019s also a sanctuary for dogs who can\u2019t be adopted,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe have to fight as hard as we can. I have confidence in my volunteers. We\u2019ll make it one way or another, but right now, it\u2019s going to be very hard to pay our biggest expense in the winter: our electric bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Puppies
Puppies play at Annie&#x2019;s Orphans, where they were born south of Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The electric and gas bill nearly quadruple in the winter, Anderson said, because each dog house is heated.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t realize what it\u2019s like to keep 65 dogs alive and well,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe\u2019re all so unsure about where this is going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The money that Anderson and her team raises is put primarily toward veterinarian bills, dog food and utility expenses.<\/p>\n

\"Fiona,
Fiona, a resident at Annie&#x2019;s Orphans, a local no-kill dog shelter, rescue and sanctuary, gets excited to see visitors at the facility south of Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Despite the struggles, Anderson has faith her shelter will continue to stay open with the help of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis community is very compassionate and helpful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

smarvin@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cancellation of winter, summer fundraisers hurts bottom line<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[382,13,28,445,1269],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animal","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-nonprofits"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50131"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}