DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Halifax Humane Society’s capacity is 350 animals but right now, it’s taking care of 400. It took in 30 animals from a recent house fire and now, needs money to take care of them.
“We had no room for the dogs so we had to go and set up pop-up cages in our education room and we put them all in there when they came in. All of the dogs need medical care, they’re in pretty bad shape,” said the humane society’s Outreach Director, Barry KuKes.
The animals were saved from a Nov. 15 house fire on Leslie Drive in Port Orange. The city said the owner was in code violation for having too many animals at the home. KuKes said they likely weren’t mistreated but they were neglected — their fur badly matted and many starving.
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“This case was very unique. We don’t expect to get 30 animals at one time that come into us especially with the majority being surrendered so we could act right away,” he said.
The humane society has already spent almost all of the $3,000 it had in its emergency medical fund on those animals. They need medicine, one dog needs a wheelchair and KuKes said they brought in extra part-time vets to help.
Now, they’re trying to raise nearly $10,000 more for these animals and will eventually need even more for others that may come in.
“We need things that people can’t donate. We need vaccines, we need antibiotics, we need specialty foods, specialty shampoos and that’s again ongoing,” he said.
Kukes said also it comes at a tough time when they haven’t been able to hold major fundraisers because of COVID.
“We’re not having our Fur Ball event this year which we have every year and that usually raises about $150,000, so we are without that,” he said.
Donations to the Halifax Humane Society can be made at this link.