“Every dog has his day,” according to the old adage, and this Saturday, October 25, looks to be the time of the canine. After all, it was only a couple of weekends ago that downtown Dahlonega’s Hancock Park was taken over by the feline-centric festival and fundraiser known as “Catoberfest.”
But this weekend, the beautiful outdoor venue will play host to TLC Humane Society’s 14th annual “Bark in the Park” event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Expected highlights of this year’s festival include live music from returning performer Jessie Albright, a bake sale, raffle items, hot dog lunches, merchandise vendors, pet contests and, of course, animal adoptions.
“TLC has been serving the community for almost 50 years and, currently, adoptions are the slowest they have ever been. Donations are way down. And we’re doing everything we can to keep up with the constant stream of animals who need our help,” Desirae Kennington, President of the TLC Board of Directors, told The Nugget.
Bark in the Park is TLC’s biggest annual fundraising event, and since the group doesn’t receive government funds to subsidize their efforts, every dollar raised from the community really matters.
“We do other things throughout the year … But this is the big, big [fundraiser] for us. If this failed, we would be in trouble,” acknowledged local TLC Humane Society manager Sean Bailey.
“Last year we raised over $25,000, and we're hoping we can do even more this year,” Kennington added.
SYMPATHETIC SOCIETY
The Nugget met up with Bailey to discuss the importance of Bark in the Park at the TLC Humane Society’s “no-kill” shelter on Red Oak Flats Road.
The shelter sits on 5.87 acres and includes a block house with two cat rooms and a separate kitten room, plus a supply storage area. Outdoor accommodations include the “Ruff House” for small and medium sized dogs, and the “Canine Castle” for large dogs.
Bailey said the cats and kittens will not be traveling to Bark in the Park, for obvious reasons.
However, there will be a number of adoptable dogs looking for a forever home, including precious pooches like Foxy and Yoshi.
Foxy is between six and eight months old, and is one of the shelter’s newest intakes.
“She’s been here for just over a month: a beautiful dog,” Bailey noted.
Another potential companion for visitors to this weekend’s festival is Yoshi, and his story is enough to melt even the hardest of human hearts.
He was actually first adopted at a previous Bark in the Park event two years ago.
“He was adopted as a puppy, and one year later was brought back to us. And he’s been with us now for a little over a year again,” Bailey said.
When they first took Yoshi back at the shelter, he was so depressed volunteers could barely get him to go for a walk.
“It was awful. He had been in a home for an entire year, and now he’s back. He’s so sweet,” Bailey said of the appreciative animal. “When you feed him every morning he will literally jump up on your shoulders.”
CRITICAL ADOPTIONS
TLC Humane Society is located only about half a mile from the County Animal Shelter, and the two often work together to find positive outcomes for unwanted pets.
“They’re coming to Bark in the Park with us, too. They’ll have an area. We always have them there with us. It’s all about taking care of the animals, for all of us,” Bailey said.
He explained that while the County is required to take in stray animals, TLC has more discretion as a private organization. However, TLC will sometimes take animals from the County shelter when they have an opening.
“We always check with them first to see if they have something over there that we think we can get adopted that is maybe in danger,” he said.
Unfortunately, like the County shelter, Bailey said TLC is seeing some alarming national trends, like adoption rates crashing.
“This year has been our most difficult year, without a doubt … We get calls from people four or five times a day wanting to give us their animals, and we have maybe, if we’re lucky, four or five adoptions a month. And that’s very low for us—it’s usually more like 12 or 15,” he explained.
Bailey recalled that only a couple of years ago the “churn” of animals was more consistent.
“We’d get some in and we’d get them adopted and you just continue. But this year has been very difficult,” he admitted.
Not only that, but donations are also down, which is the source of TLC’s funding.
Bailey speculated that rampant inflation is a likely catalyst.
“I think a lot of people are having a hard time feeding themselves and their own families. We’re hearing a lot of that when people are calling us. ‘Hey, we’ve got this 75-pound dog and we can’t afford to keep him anymore.’ Whereas again, a couple years ago, dog food was cheaper and, you know, everything was cheaper. So yeah, the economy is a huge part of it,” he said.
Along with rising food prices there has also been an increase in surrenders of larger dogs.
“At this point, we’re trying to be as surgical as possible and only bring in things that we think will be adoptable, whereas we never had to think like that before. So we’re having to change the way we do everything,” he said. “We want to help all of them, and that’s just not feasible anymore.”
Bailey said kittens and small dogs are able to find homes much more quickly.
“Right now we only have two applications [for adoption], and they’re both for small dogs,” he added.
DIFFERENCE MAKER
Bailey said this year Bark in the Park features more vendors this year than they have ever had.
“I was just at Art in the Park … and there were three rows of just vendors. That’s what we’re going to have this year. We usually only have two,” he said.
Exhibitors will be selling animal-related arts and crafts. There will also be pet vendors like Lolo’s Natural Farm & Pet on site, as well.
And Bailey said this year’s raffle prizes are bigger and better than ever, including Tea for Two at Waffle’s English Tea Room, a two night, pet-friendly outing at The Bleu Canoe, a Craftsman combo kit and much more.
But Bailey said the main feature is an area where people can come meet some of TLC’s amazing animals.
“If we get some volunteers out of it, that’s amazing. If we get adoptions, that’s the best outcome,” he said.
As always, donations to TLC will also be accepted at Saturday’s festival.
“We would greatly appreciate it. We’re not usually so needy, but right now we’re a little needy,” Bailey acknowledged.
For more information about TLC Humane Society, Bark in the Park, or to make an online donation, please visit www.tlchs.org.