Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center (SVASC) operates on a very tight budget. The majority of funding is spent on food, spay/neuter, basic vetting, microchipping, staffing, and supplies needed for day-to-day operations.
As a private, non-profit group operating separately from the shelter and the localities, we are able to raise funds to help shelter animals in need of extensive medical care. It is our goal to ensure that animals who arrive at the shelter with illnesses or injuries have the best chance of finding a loving forever home. We achieve this goal by fundraising and covering the cost of life-saving surgeries and treatments.
Due to limited funding, the shelter is not able to provide professional behavioral help to animals with training needs; this leaves some animals unsuitable for adoption. Some animals arrive at the shelter with severe separation anxiety, fear aggression, and behavioral fallout from severe neglect. While members of the shelter staff do their best to diagnose and address these types of issues, time with an experienced trainer is unarguably a struggling animal's best bet at leaving the shelter safely and successfully adopted.
Friends of Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center raises funds to cover the cost of behavioral evaluations by professional trainers, post-adoption training sessions for particular animals, and long-term boarding and training for shelter animals in need.