Twelve animal lovers from Moore County attended an organizational meeting Monday night hosted by The Haven, a no-kill animal shelter in Hoke County.

The Haven rescues some dogs and cats from the Moore County Animal Control Center’s euthanasia list and receives donations from Moore County residents.

Linden Spear, owner of a 200-acre horse farm that houses The Haven, asked each member of the group to bring four others to the next meeting, in two weeks at Sandhills Community College. Spear, who teaches a dog training class at the college, is seeking a Moore County support group to display adoptable animals from The Haven in high-traffic public places in order to get homes for them.

“We also desperately need foster homes, because the puppies and kittens are being born and we need a place to have them temporarily placed to get them ready for adoption,” Spear said. She has a network of 50 such temporary foster homes in neighboring counties, and needs them in Moore, she said.

She also asked for people to decide what committees they’d like to work on in order to get a low-cost spay-and-neuter clinic going to reduce the population of unwanted dogs and cats, and to work in an aggressive adoption program.

The aim is to have no-kill shelters in the counties of this region within a few years.

Meetings are planned in Fayetteville for March 28 and in Southern Pines on May 19, prior to a national no-kill conference in Virginia Beach.

“It could be done,” Spear said. “People need to be convinced this is practical. They will save money on animal control officers, on the cost of killing and picking up and holding strays, if a spay and neuter clinic that can do it at affordable prices can be set up.”

The stumbling block, she said, is that North Carolina law permits animal medical clinics to be owned only by veterinarians. There are ways to work with willing veterinarians to operate such a clinic under their licenses, but no such veterinary practice is available in Moore County, she said.

The N.C. General Assembly enacted legislation to permit Charlotte to operate its own government spay-and-neuter program, Spear said. In the two decades that Charlotte has had its low-cost clinic, instances of strays having to be euthanized have declined dramatically, saving an estimated $3 million, she said.

The General Assembly has nacted legislation, under state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird’s sponsorship, to provide free spay and neuter services for low-income pet owners, according to Maureen Haransky of Pinehurst.

Grants to regional agencies, under a national $250 million grant from the Maddie Foundation, are available for no-kill operations, Spear said.

The private, nonprofit Haven and the Humane Society of Moore County are both allowed to visit the county center in Pinehurst, to take the few strays they may have room for and try to find homes for them. The others are euthanized.

Spear said she does not favor euthanasia for population reduction or for convenience. Her shelter houses about 400 dogs and cats.

Other rescue operations such as Solutions for Animals, a private shelter in Hoke County owned by Cindy Bristow, keep their populations low by accepting only those animals they can provide with quality indoor and outdoor facilities, personal attention and a degree of socialization, as well as medical care.

Bristow said she also intends to seek permission to pick up adoptable strays from the county center in Pinehurst. She said she has been successful in finding homes for animals she takes on the weekends to Dog’s Best Friend, a day-care center for dogs, located on Broad Street behind old U.S. 1 in Southern Pines.

“I intend to keep coming to Linden Spear’s meetings,” Bristow said. But she added that she disagrees with putting the animals on display in high-traffic areas. Bristow emphasizes spending many weeks to find the right new owner for a homeless animal, and bringing it to specialized places for adoption weekends.

Bristow is building runs in a shed on her residential property that will meet N.C. Department of Agriculture specifications and needs materials valued at about $2,500 to complete them, with most of the labor already donated. “These would give (the animals) indoor faciltities, including air conditioning, which they deserve because they are domesticated animals,” she said. “I would not put dogs or cats in crates to display, or keep them permanently outdoors.”

Spear said people need to be shown that, “These animals are not filthy, nasty, diseased creatures. They are creatures that you would want to take home with you and become part of your family.”

All such animals are cleaned, de-wormed and given shots to ensure that they are healthy before being adopted, the rescue agencies say.

Spear said she needs $6,000 to complete outdoor dog runs and roofing at The Haven.

Currently, the Moore County Animal Control Center in Pinehurst is where strays are taken when picked up — not the Humane Society shelter inCarthage, which used to be where the strays were taken.

One member of the audience Monday night said that many people don’t know where to go to look for their strayed dogs or cats.

The county holds a stray for three days, to give its owner time to pick it up. Then, unless it is under quarantine for having bitten someone, it tries to let the rescue agencies take the animal if it is adoptable. The county will hold adoptable animals as long as possible while there is still room. But space in the rescue agencies is limited, and they don’t save every adoptable animal.

“If the public comes in and sees an animal they like, they can adopt the animal through the Humane Society of Moore County or The Haven,” said July Bryant, manager of the Moore County Animal Control Center.

The dog or cat would be transported to either place for spaying, neutering, and shots before being released to the new owner, she said. Adoption forms are on file at the center.

Bryant said she hopes a new county policy will allow people to adopt animals directly from the county center.

But the policy is still under study by administrators and attorneys, she said.

If the policy is enacted, she and the other workers at the county center can give the required shots and treatments without having to let HUSOM, The Haven, or Solutions for Animals do it, thereby making it more convenient for someone to take an animal home.

When a person may adopt a pet directly out of the Animal Control Center, the county will probably charge around $65, including the costs of spaying and neutering, shots, de-worming and other services.

“It’s worth driving the extra five miles right now to pick up an animal at the Carthage animal shelter that HUSOM operates, for a good pet that will become one of the family,” Bryant said. “But we want to make it as convenient as possible for people to provide good homes to animals.”

Even so, some animals simply can’t remain. There is no space in the small, rented temporary veterinary clinic that the county is using until it builds a new center of its own. Animals are still euthanized.

Some residents of Pinehurst have obtained 500 signatures on a petition that is being circulated to press the county to expedite its adoption process.