Helping Hands Humane Society

Helping Hands Humane Society The Helping Hands Humane Society is a 501 c 3 non profit organization whose primary purpose is helping the animals of Taliaferro County, Georgia. We are in the smallest, poorest county in Georgia and have no city or county animal shelter or animal control. We are a small group of animal loving volunteers. Over half the residents of the county live below the poverty level with all the challenges and heartbreak that creates.

My house is licenced by the Department of Agriculture as an Animal Shelter and I'm inspected yearly. We get no federal, state, county or city funds. We have one foundation, Pawprints, who gives us about $2,000 per year. We usually do a couple of fundraisers like bakeyardcraft sales but much of the expense is funded out of our own pockets.

Our primary focus is getting animals spayed and neutered to prevent overpopulation. We utilize a low cost spayneuter clinic about 40 miles away and have also participated in free spayneuter at University of Georgia in Athens when the students are learning that surgery. For low or fixed income residents we ask that they pay half the cost, if they don't have the money, we pay for it all. Since many of our residents are without transportation, we usually pick up the dog or cat at their home and take it for surgery and return the animal to their owner. We also help low income residents with basic shots and worming for their animals.

Despite our best efforts in spayneuter there are still unwanted litters that occur. We get calls for help from owners who have an unwanted litter. We will visit the momma dog daily and provide food for the mother and for the pups when they are old enough to eat solid food. We also socialize the puppies to make them more adoptable.We usually can get the owner to agree to surrender the pups and allow us to get the mother dog spayed. We have taken in and placed over 100 puppies over the last couple of years. We usually place the puppies out of county as there are not enough good homes available here. Unfortunately, most dogs in our county live their lives chained to a tree with inadequate food, water and shelter.

Even worse, many litters are just dumped on a county road, usually near a trash dumpster when they are about 6 to 8 weeks old. The lucky ones are brought to our attention so we can go pick them up...the unlucky ones are hit by cars, eaten by coyotes or die of starvation and exposure.

We also take in abandoned adult dogs, many of which are special needs and hard to adopt out. We currently have 4 heartworm positive dogs who are receiving the slow treatment with monthly heartguard, a dog with a defective heart valve, a dog with diabetes insipidis, two dogs who climb fences like monkeys, a dog who's a cat killer...they are each wonderful dogs, precious and happy, but hard to find a good placement for. We also have a number of perfectly healthy dogs who are a few years old...and it seems everyone wants a PUPPY so these delightful dogs are overlooked as a potential companion.

Cats and kittens are also a big part of our efforts. When someone finds an abandoned kitten, it is usually brought to my door. Most people in our county have only outside cats...which have been decimated in recent years as coyotes have moved into the city. I will not adopt out a cat who will be thrown outdoors to be coyote chow so very few of our kitties find new homes in the county.

We work well with other Humane Societies and rescue groups. Most of our pups are placed through these groups. They occasionally will take an adult dog as well but very seldom as they face the same challenges that we do in placing adult dogs.

I'll be posting pictures and individual stories of the animals in our care. Perhaps you will find the perfect lifelong companion amongst our dogs and cats.

Note: PO Boxes will not show correctly on the map below.