The Logan County Humane Society will be hosting its annual Chili Supper and Auction on Nov. 10 beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Sportsman Club in Russellville. This is the Humane Society’s largest fund raiser and the organization relies heavily throughout the year on the funds generated from this event.

The event will feature a decorated atmosphere full of love, live music, exquisite chili with all the condiments (cheese, relish, onions, etc.), hot dogs, chips, drinks and a live action facilitated by Bobby Blackford Auctioneers. There will be numerous items to bid on from very generous business in Logan County as well as Bowling Green.

The HS volunteers have worked very hard to organize the event and want to invite everyone to come out and enjoy themselves while supporting the animals.

Proceeds collected from the event will be used to directly to save the unwanted animal population in Logan County. Through the society’s thriving rescue program, literally thousands of dogs have been saved in the past five years. The Logan County Humane Society is the closest it has ever been to being a no-kill shelter for dogs.

Between Jan. 1, 2012 to date, the shelter took in 861 dogs. Out of those 861, 161 were adopted, 40 went back to their owners, 565 were saved through rescue, 27 were brought in sick or injured and died and 67 were litters of puppies that had come into the shelter with Parvovirus, a life threatening condition and had to be euthanized.

The society also began a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program this spring. Volunteers catch feral cats in cages in the Logan County communities and then the society, through partnering with the local veterinarians, have them spayed or neutered and then return them to their environment. This program has proven to be very successful in larger cities such as Louisville cutting down on the overwhelming cat population. The idea is to target feral cat colonies and spay or neuter as many cats as possible over several years. This will cut back on them producing and allow them to die out naturally. Feral cats can take care of themselves in the wild.

“We look to the support of the community to help make saving the animals possible. We could not do it without their financial support and we are very thankful to all of those out there who have helped us and will help us,” said Humane Society Director Kathy Maddox.

The Humane Society is funded by the county and the city of Russellville; however, those funds go for the day-to-day operations of the shelter and not the rescue program, which finds homes for the animals. That is funded directly from donations.

The Humane Society began its rescue program approximately five years ago to help find homes for their animals. They started transporting their animals to rescue facilities in the northern states because there are so many animals that come into the shelter that local adoptions were not enough to save the majority. There is a network of rescue facilities in the northern states that partner with shelters all over. Because of these state’s strict spay and neuter laws the demand for unwanted animals for adoption in their areas is great.

The rescue facilities look at what animals the Logan County Humane Society has and if they feel they can find homes for them they will take them. The Humane Society is then responsible for transporting them to these facilities to be adopted. The Logan County Humane Society partners with facilities in Chicago and has taken animals as far as Pennsylvania and New York. The Humane Society makes no money on the dogs and has to pay for the fuel to get them there, which can be very costly.

“If we had to stop our rescue program because of lack of funds, we would ultimately go back to euthanizing most of our animals here,” said Maddox adding that holding fund-raising events and road blocks is very important to the survival of these animals.

The Logan County Humane Society is not affiliated with any other animal rescue in Logan County. They are a stand alone entity vying for funds from the community to save the unwanted animals in Logan County.