Merced County animal shelter gets much needed help

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A North Valley animal shelter is more than doubling its transfer efforts after an influx of animals came in on 4th of July weekend.

Monday was a fresh start for Merced County strays thanks to New Beginnings.

"We first started with adoptions like other shelters and what we realized is that it didn't touch the euthanasia rate at our shelter," New Beginnings Merced County president Sharon Lohman said.

The shelter based in Atwater has been holding animal transfers for more than a decade but after the 4th of July holiday weekend, they needed extra reinforcement.

"It's just been horrendous with the numbers coming in it's like we had to do something," Lohman said. "And we had to start calling around to get animals out of here as fast as we could."

Teaming up with Wings of Rescue, the year-round effort flies and drives shelter animals to their forever homes across the country.

"The rescue express bus that we can charter at no charge and they do transports from here all the way to the Canadian border," Lohman said.

Last year New Beginnings helped close to 5,000 animals, that's on par with the San Francisco SPCA.

A pup named Mollie was a day away from hopping on a shuttle to Utah.

"She jumped in my lap and just curled up and she was at home so we just have to take her back," owner Susan Swoveland said.

Timing was everything for the Colorado couple who were in town visiting friends.

"She would've found a good home eventually but to know that she's going to be ours is awesome because she picked us," Swoveland said.

That's just one of their success stories.

The organization comprised of volunteers partners with animal services to increase the live release rate.