Hello Gillespie County!
“The Pedernales Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) is excited to announce we are alive and well and now open for business”, said Timothy Gikas, acting president. “Changing times and expanding area populations have brought many changes to Gillespie County and so the demand for animal services had grown to the point of overwhelming local resources able to deal with the problem.”
After careful assessment of the problematic area animal welfare situation, PAWS committed itself to be part of the solution by building an organization that will serve Gillespie County in perpetuity. To accomplish the new goal, the first order of business was to reform the organization’s operating structure.
Along with this reformation, PAWS’ adopted a new business model that could meet the challenges of today’s out-of-control animal population by means of both educational programs and active spay/neuter programs.
“Perhaps PAWS’ greatest challenge is the fact that we are an all-volunteer organization surviving on only on local donations for financial support”, added Gikas. “This is both a bad and good situation. Bad because there is no paid full-time staff to operate the PAWS business. But, also very good because PAWS has very low overhead expenses which mean PAWS is able to apply almost all of our funds to animal control needs rather than overhead.”
PAWS’ board members first priority was to improve their ability to communicate with supporters and make PAWS’ services readily available to everyone. To do this, an easy to use highly-functional website was launched recently.
The new website provides the ability to create spay/neuter appointments, make donations, assist as a volunteer and tap into pet ownership educational opportunities, online even from the convenience of a cell phone.
In addition, PAWS is starting a newsletter that will keep subscribers appraised of the most current changes and needs in the Gillespie County animal control situation.
PAWS’ new website can be explored at www.FbgPAWS.org where its easy to sign-up for the PAWS newsletter and learn more about our pet Spay/Neuter program.
