Art to the Rescue: Holmes art students begin project to raise money for Humane Society

On Oct. 11, a furry visitor arrived for a presentation with some art students at Holmes Junior High, and she brought Elizabeth Sutton from the Cedar Bend Humane Society along too.

Layla is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix, and, as Sutton explained, she is available for adoption.

Sutton explained how they care for the pets in the Humane Society, what can be done to help, what types of pets they have and more.

The art students from Ashley Cardamone’s class had many questions, one of which was regarding the Cedar Bend euthanasia policy. Sutton explained that they don’t use this last resort for space, or at least they try not to. They usually only use it for animals who are too sick to be treated and or for aggression/behavior issues. They euthanize a lot of cats, other than dogs, because of the number they have, rolling in about 500 new cats every two months. In the same amount of time, intake for dogs is about 200.

According to Sutton, the animals arrive at the Humane Society because “a lot of people move. They might have had an animal, and they find a house or a rental that doesn’t allow animals. A lot of strays, especially cats, people, sadly enough, dump animals, lost and found, behavior issues — like if you get another animal as a companion for the other animal and they don’t get along well, one of them eventually gets sent back to the shelter, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

Those interested in purchasing greeting cards featuring Holmes artwork to benefit the shelter, or who would like to donate some painting or drawings that will eventually be turned into greeting cards and sold to gain money for the Cedar Bend Humane Society should contact Haley Williams or Ashley Cardamone at 20halwil@student.cfschools.org or ashley.cardamone@cfschools.org. The greeting cards will be created by students in Holmes art classes. They will be sold, and the money will be sent to the Humane Society as a donation.

Those who would like to adopt an animal, can go look on the Cedar Bend Humane Society’s website at cedarbendhumane.org. They have a lot of animals that would love to be adopted, from pocket pets to big dogs.