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The Fairfield County branch of the Ohio State Humane Society was formed in February 1886 in a meeting at Lancaster's City Hall. Historically the organization was loosely formed by community members who were interested in protecting the rights of animals. Around 1980, the Fairfield Area Humane Society became a small non-profit agency mandated by the Ohio Revised Code to investigate and refer for prosecution incidents of animal cruelty, abuse and neglect.

With the support of the people of Fairfield County, we have worked to improve the welfare of animals through education, legislation and prevention of cruelty. We are a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, guided by a dedicated board. Though united with many humane societies across the country in a common concern for animals, the Fairfield Area Humane Society is an independent organization relying on the generosity of donations from the people of Fairfield County. For that, we thank you.

The Fairfield Area Humane Society is an independent, non-profit, no-kill* organization dedicated to the humane treatment of animals through protection, placement, and education.

To achieve these goals we:

  • Investigate reports of cruelty, abuse and neglect of animals 

  • Prosecute those parties involved in deliberate or careless abuse or neglect of animals. 

  • Operate an adoption program 

  • Educate adults & children about animal welfare issues 

  • Advocate animal welfare issues 

  • Provide Lost/Found assistance to pet owners 

  • Provide a means to promote volunteerism in one's community

Definition of No-Kill: Only healthy animals not known to have exhibited potentially dangerous or vicious tendencies or serious behavioral disorders should be made available for adoption.


Annie Update a/o 4/30/08
Hi Everyone! Annie went for her check-up at OSU today and let me just say, "Woo-Hoo!" Her radio graphs show no signs of pneumonia at this time! She's got two more weeks of antibiotics, just to be on the safe side, but she is definitely on the road to recovery now. I, for one, am so relieved!
     She still has not gained any weight since her visit last week, so we are going to play with her food a little bit to see if she can tolerate more at once, and less times per day. (Thank Goodness!) She will still have special food and will have to be held upright for 30 minutes following each feeding, but the Dr. Surman (the internal medicine guy) says that the hope is, after she grows up a little bit, she will be able to eat on her own and not have to be held upright. She will likely never be able to eat "regular" dog food, it will always have to be a soft consistency, but hey, eat by herself? That's a good goal! I will have to continue to muzzle her, for now, because she still has quite a stricture on her esophagus because of the persistent aortic arch. Hopefully, though, she will outgrow that as she starts to grow. While she is a puppy and into everything, she must not be able to get things into her mouth that cannot pass through that stricture.
     So her next hurdle is another surgery in three weeks. This one is to fix a hernia that we knew about a long time ago, but put off until she was healthy enough. They are going to spay her early so they can fix this hernia at the same time, before it causes her any trouble with her bowls or bladder. So, hopefully, she will have all surgeries behind her soon and go on to live a peaceful life of making someone a very lucky dog owner!
     This poor girl, she's got body malfunctions going on everywhere! Slowly but surely, though, we are getting her fixed up and she couldn't be happier. She's giving me a run for my money, but she's definitely worth it. Definitely. Thanks for checking in!

Annie Update a/o 4/28/08
Hello Annie fans! Sorry for the delay in updates, Annie has kept me a very busy person! She came home from OSU (AGAIN!) last Thursday with two new antibiotics. The fine doctors over there cultured some of the junk in her lungs and have, hopefully, pinpointed the bacteria that is causing her so much trouble. I pray that she is finally going to kick that nasty pneumonia! She actually woke up this morning (Monday) and sounded FAR better than she has for weeks and weeks.
My next goal is to try to put some weight on her itsy-bitsy frame. She hasn't gained any weight for weeks, not so typical for a 11 week old puppy. And my common sense tells me that she will never have a chance to outgrow a condition if she doesn't GROW! I have been feeding her what the doctor's say, and she's been keeping it down pretty well. So I have recently started beefing up her meals and I am feeding her every 2-3 hours. Now, if you calculate that I have to hold her in an upright position for 30 minutes after every feeding, and I feed her every 2-3 hours throughout the day, I am pretty sure that it is all I get done all day! She doesn't mind one bit, though. The poor thing is so very hungry all the time. It's sad to think that she's never felt the sensation of a FULL stomach. (Except maybe as a very small baby with her Momma). She can only eat small, frequent meals and she's never done when the bowl is. It certainly hasn't hurt her energy level, though! She is a VERY busy girl. I have recently purchased her a muzzle, but must locate a better one with a basket on the end. Like a typical puppy, she has taken to eating everything she passes. She's even picked up a few tricks from her mom because she is so famished, and has decided that she likes rocks, cigarette butts, mulch, fuzz...you name it, and I've confiscated it from her hungry little mouth. Her little esophagus can't pass anything that doesn't fully dissolve, though, so she can't BE a typical puppy. So at this time, I can never put her down unless it is a completely baby-proofed room that has been swept well and mopped. I have a play pen that I put her in to keep her safe, which she climbs right out of the minute she feels like it! I will be glad when I finally get the glitches worked out and I can put her back down in the yard. She had such fun playing in the grass and following my dogs, kids (and me) around, but I don't trust her a bit right now! So it sounds like I am complaining, but I love her to death. She is just the sweetest thing, and has no idea at all what a pain in the butt she is! :) I hope that she doesn't stay so high maintenance, though, because I want someone to be able to fall in love with her and give her a forever home. I will do my best to try to make sure that happens for her.
So she's got a follow-up appointment at OSU on Wednesday, so I'll try to give you all another update as soon as I have some news from the doctors about how they think that she is progressing. Thanks for checking in!


ANNIE UPDATE a/o 4/21/08



Our little Annie was doing very well post surgery. No one has told her at this point that she has been (or is still) sick! We picked her up from OSU on Wednesday, where Channel 10 was generous enough to meet us and air a little update. It was a shock to my eyes, because she was even smaller when I picked her up than when I dropped her off. In one week she had already lost so much weight! The doctor's at OSU seemed to have taken her under their wings, though, because she was still as spoiled as ever! She has been doing very well at home, eating around the clock. She looks pitiful with her tiny little shaved body and big line of stitches. I try to get as many small meals into her as often as I can, but as of right now she is still on a liquid diet and is always, always hungry. It makes me feel horrible for her because it seems she can never get full, so I feed her as often as possible. Unfortunately, Annie has found herself back at OSU today. She was doing well yesterday, until her final feeding last night. She immediately regurgitated her food last night and didn't seem to be able to keep it down. We then had a very long night of coughing and raspy breathing. She has been raspy all along, due to an upper respiratory infection she contracted from her mom at two weeks of age. This morning was more of the same, so I rushed her to the vet this morning for a second opinion. (I am so oversensitive to her now that I was hoping that I was just imagining it!) They suggested that we take her back to OSU today. (Not my imagination, unfortunately). She was examined by the doctors at OSU, and they are going to keep her overnight and do some more testing. Aspiration pneumonia is her biggest enemy right now, and she has been battling it since before she even had surgery. She is such a sweet little puppy, and follows me like a shadow. She is very playful (although not allowed to go overboard!), very loving and extremely loyal. She cries at night when she is alone, so I've taken to letting her sleep in the bed and get up 4 times a night to take her outside! (Thus the very long nights!) That liquid diet makes it hard to hold it for long, especially for a 9 week old puppy! We love watching her discover the world, without even a thought as to the unfair hand she was dealt at birth. She is a curious little hound dog, bumbling around with her nose to the ground. We are still keeping her quiet at this point, but can't wait until she is free to be a normal little puppy! She's a survivor, like her mom. She's giving it all she's got and we are so very glad to have the privilege of offering her the chance. Thank you, again, to all who cared enough to help us give her this opportunity to live. Keep your fingers crossed for her and the prayers coming, she still needs them desperately. I will try to post regular updates.



ANNIE UPDATE

4/15/08
Hello kind hearted puppy lovers! Just wanted to add a little "Post Surgery Annie Update." Annie's doctors said that she did very well through the night and is playful and happy this morning! Yeah! She ate this morning with no regurgitation, which is awesome! While they were trying to examine her this morning, she was chewing on the blood pressure cuff, chewing on her catheters and just making a regular pest of herself!! That's our Annie! Apparently she's become quite a favorite there at OSU as well, always begging for someone to tuck her in their arm and spoil her rotten. We are glad that they are so accommodating to her, but we can't wait for her to come back. We miss her so. I will update again as soon as I have news! Thanks for caring enough to check on little Annie!


ANNIE UPDATE
a/o 4/13/08

     To the animal lovers across the county, state and country who have responded: THANK YOU, THANK YOU from Annie and all of us for your generous response to Annie's plea! I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to OSU, as well. They have given us a much needed break on the cost of the surgery, so coupled with Annie's donations, she has raised enough money to have the surgery she so desperately needs. Annie is currently at OSU Veterinary Hospital awaiting surgery. I took her last Thursday, expecting surgery to take place on Friday. Annie's biggest battle at this point is avoiding aspiration pneumonia, which is very common for dogs with megaesophagus, since they cannot properly swallow their food.  Unfortunately, Annie did aspirate some of her food Thursday night and the doctors at OSU put her surgery on hold to make sure that she did not develop pneumonia. Annie spent the last several days in Intensive Care at OSU, being monitored closely to ensure that her lungs stayed healthy. The good news is that she was taken out of the ICU ward yesterday and is back to being a bouncy, happy, and healthy (as healthy as can be expected with a heart defect) puppy! She is scheduled to be the first on the table Monday morning.
     We have been extremely worried about the unforeseen complications that could arise, above and beyond her original surgery price quote. I have very high hopes now that with the staggering emotional outpouring and financial support we have received from "Annie's public," she will not have to want for whatever care she needs. I am more than thrilled and relieved to know that I will not have to worry about placing any "financial cap" on Annie's care. Keep her in your prayers, she will need it. There is a very high mortality rate post-surgery due to the aspiration pneumonia that I have already talked about. She will have a three week "window of terror," and if she makes it through that, she will hopefully be out of the woods and on her way to a long, happy and healthy life! To deliver her into this world, watch her grow and mature and then all of the sudden cease to thrive was more than heartbreaking for me and everyone else here at the shelter. We could not have given her this chance without people like you with the kindest hearts and the love that I share for these helpless little animals. I will do my absolute best for her post surgery and I will keep you updated as best I can. She deserves this, more than most of you know. She just might be the sweetest puppy in the world. She's definitely one of the luckiest, as am I to have the opportunity to know and care for her. Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, and little Annie's.
Fairfield Area Humane Society
Executive Director, Michelle Sahr



A desperate plea to save little Annie:

     Meet Annie. Annie is only eight weeks old, born at our shelter the day before Valentine’s Day. She has already faced enough challenges to last a lifetime in her short time here on Earth. Annie was born to a mom who actually ate cigarette butts and rocks because she had nothing else to eat. She was eating anything she could to survive for the babies in her belly. 
     Annie’s mom, Winnie, was rescued from the Dog shelter by our Director just three days before she delivered her pups. She was so emaciated and dehydrated, our director feared for her life if she tried to go through labor and childbirth in the state she was in. She was brought to the Humane Society, where our staff administered fluids and tried to give her as many good meals as we could to prepare her for what lay ahead. Winnie managed to give birth to what was thought to be seven healthy puppies.
    At five weeks, however, Annie started to deteriorate. At first, she presented with severe anemia, with no apparent cause. This appeared to be a likely effect of her mom’s state of starvation prior to her birth. Unfortunately, Annie’s problems didn’t stop there. Soon we noticed that Annie was having severe problems breathing and she couldn’t keep any food down and stopped gaining weight. Dr. Dunn at Fairfield Pet Hospital here in Lancaster, alerted us that Annie could possibly have a condition called Megaesophagus. The underlying cause of megaesophagus could be a heart defect known as Vascular Ring Anomaly. He suggested further testing, one of them being a barium scan to watch how Annie’s body handled food once it was swallowed. After many, many trips to vets and countless sleepless nights for our director, Annie’s diagnosis was determined to be terminal. The barium scan revealed that Annie did indeed have the condition. This means that the valve that pumped blood from one side of her heart to the other in-utero did not close after she was born. This artery/ligament is now squeezing on Annie’s trachea and esophagus, causing her food to back up in her throat until she throws it up and restricting her breathing tremendously. The end result is that Annie will die if she does not have open heart surgery quickly. Annie is living on borrowed time and her clock is ticking. The bigger she gets, the worse her condition gets.
    Annie is so playful and happy now; it doesn’t even appear that she is sick, until you hear her breathe. Then if you compare her size to that of her brothers and sisters, her condition becomes painfully obvious. Although she doesn’t know it yet, Annie is dying. We, the staff, volunteers and board are begging now for your help; so much so that I cry as I type this. Annie needs at least $3000.00 for her surgery and aftercare. Annie has beaten the odds so many times before in her little tiny life, but she absolutely cannot do it alone this time. If you can help, please do. Annie doesn’t have much time to spare. Donations can be made over the internet via our website with paypal, or checks/cash can be mailed to the Fairfield Area Humane Society, P.O. Box 1109, Lancaster, OH 43130. Please mark your donation “Save Annie.” Thank you, Thank you from the bottom of our hearts….and Annie’s.


Fairfield Pet Hospital, located in Lancaster, deserves our very special thanks! For years and years, this full service veterinarian hospital has responded to our humane officer calls to care for dogs and cats hit by cars, suffering from abuse and other injuries and illnesses– sometimes in the middle of the night. All of the staff there is always extremely open with their hearts, time and expertise. “They have an emergency vet ‘on call’ for their existing clients, which has been so wonderful for quickly getting expert care for our very hurt or sick animals,” stated Humane Officer Bill Huffman. “We’ve always been happy with their expert care – in particular their excellent surgeons,” said Bill. “In addition, they have a vet, Dr. Dunn, who has helped us with animal behavior issues when we have an animal that is not adapting well.” Our director, Michelle Sahr, says that “We have been known to burden their clinic with multiple emergency calls, and they are always super generous with their accommodations. I cannot say enough about them, I would highly recommend their clinic to anyone in need of an excellent vet.”

Pictured is Chester, who is currently up for adoption. He was successfully treated by Fairfield Pet Hospital for a broken leg after he was hit by a car. Now he doesn’t even have his cast on!


See a list of some of our most recent and most generous donors!
Without them the work we do would not be possible;
*THANK YOU!*”



Sugar Update

    Hey, remember me? I’m not the skinny, starving abused dog you probably remember. I’ve almost doubled my weight, and am now a svelte 83 pounds and loving every day. I live with the Humane Officer Bill Huffman and his family and love playing with the other dogs and just hanging out. You might remember that my jaw was so deformed I could not eat and my tongue was permanently hanging out when I first came to the Fairfield Area Humane Society. Well, thanks to great care and amazing surgery, I’m now loving my dry dog food AND rawhide chew toys.

    Sometimes Bill and I go out and visit schools and teach children how to take care of their pets. When animals like me come into the Fairfield Area Humane Society who have been hurt or neglected, it’s nice to know that there are those kind staff and volunteers who are there to protect and defend us, and make sure we get better so we can have forever homes.

    Bill says I should live to be an old, old dog. I have all of my friends around the world who donated money and sent cards to thank for my life. Believe me, every day is a treat for me just spending it with Bill. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Sugar


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