Ben Madilynn
Athenspets, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2001, has become an important part of the Athens community, dedicated to helping the city’s most vulnerable animals. Since its inception, the organization has grown from a simple idea into a crucial support system for pets and their owners.
Athenspets originally started as a simple website to publicize shelter animals to find them permanent homes. In 2015, Executive Director Lisa Milot decided she wanted to turn Athenspets into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Now, Athenspets is a much more robust organization, but their goal has remained the same: to help the animals stuck in the shelter find homes and make animal shelters less crowded.
“We’re sort of a hub for information and services in a lot of ways,” Milot said. “We cover the cost of spaying and neutering of about 500 to 600 owned animals a year to reduce overproduction, so we are the primary organization that provides no-cost spays and neuters.”
Athens Pets, a nonprofit based in Athens, GA, recently saved 12 animals at the Humane Society. Woody, a male mixed-breed dog, stands inside his kennel (Photo by Callie Clark, @cm_photography_co)
So far this year, Athenspets has paid to spay or neuter 508 shelter animals through their Spay/Neuter Program. Additionally, Athenspets has organized the transport of 494 animals to out-of-state rescues.
Varsha Ramachandra, a veterinary medicine student at the University of Georgia, is on the board of directors for Athenspets, where she is in charge of the organization’s medical financial decisions.
Shelters sometimes cannot help animals due to financial constraints or legal reasons. Ramachandra said the most rewarding part of being a part of Athenspets is saying yes to giving an animal a medical procedure when a shelter may not be able to.
“It’s nice to be able to say yes to things sometimes, and a dog or cat gets to live because of it,” Ramachandra said.
Athens Pets, a nonprofit based in Athens, GA, recently saved 12 animals at the Humane Society. The dogs are being housed at Athens-Clarke County Animal Services building, located at 125 Buddy Christian Way, Athens, GA (Photo by Callie Clark, @cm_photography_co)
Not only does Athenspets provide medical treatment to shelter animals, but the organization also steps in to cover medical costs that local pet owners may not be able to afford. This is achieved partly through donations from the Athens community.
Athenspets also hosts community pop-up clinics that offer free spays and neuters, as well as rabies shots, basic vaccinations and microchipping.
Milot said one of her favorite success stories was a dog named Peaches. After Peaches’ owner passed away and she lost her home, her owner’s family decided to reach out to Athenspets for help. One of Athenspets’ partners in Canada posted her information, and an adopter drove to Atlanta from Canada to adopt Peaches.
“[Peaches] is healthy and is doing great,” Milot said.
Ramachandra’s favorite success story was a dog named Lilo, who came into the shelter with rectal prolapse, which is a condition that could require euthanasia in a shelter environment due to the lack of staff ability for constant monitoring. Lilo was referred by an animal control officer to Athenspets, and Lilo and the officer found a new companion in each other.
“We covered her procedure, and then [the animal control officer] took her into foster [care],” Ramachandra said. “She became everyone’s favorite dog. He’d bring her to work every day and she just got a ton of love.”
Athens Pets, a nonprofit based in Athens, GA, recently saved 12 animals at the Humane Society. Woody, a male mixed-breed dog, jumps up on the fence of the kennel (Photo by Callie Clark, @cm_photography_co)
Athenspets works very closely with Athens-Clarke County Animal Services. A lot of the animals that the organization works with comes through the ACC animal shelter, then Athenspets makes sure the animals are scheduled to receive a medical assessment, including spaying or neutering, within two weeks of arriving.
Kristall Barber, the animal services director at Athens Clarke County Animal Services, said that the fact that Athenspets pays for the animals to get vaccinated and spayed or neutered before coming into the facility makes them adoptable at a faster rate.
”When [the animals] come in, they’re already ready to go. They could get surrendered on Monday and adopted on Monday,” Barber said. “We’ve had that happen a couple of times, because they’re ready to go and they’re already vaccinated.”
Athenspets also handles all social media posts for Athens-Clarke County Animal Services since Animal Services does not have social media of their own. Similar to their beginnings in 2001, Athenspets posts animals on their social media to promote them for adoption, which helps increase their visibility and chances of finding homes.
“When we focus our resources on things like spay [and] neuter and education and community outreach, we can keep those animals from ever entering the shelter,” Ramachandra said.
