Sep 27 2010
HSUS Won’t Save This Pet Shelter. You Can.
Safe Haven of Iowa County is a well-regarded pet shelter near Wiliamsburg, Iowa. Unless someone steps in soon—very soon—it will cease to exist:
Safe Haven Director Rinthea Satterlee [says] the group has about eight days to raise $40,000.
The shelter began in 2005 and was located near Amana until its lease expired in June. For the last three months, volunteers have relied on the generosity of others to house the more than 30 dogs and nearly 100 cats they care for.
But in November, the shelter will need a new home for the dogs, Satterlee said …
“We don’t know where the dogs are going to go after November 1, Satterlee said. “We literally have a week to raise $40,000.”
Do you expect the Humane Society of the United States to save the day? Neither do we.
This is the very sort of situation that HSUS should be spending its money to resolve. But that’s not terribly likely, since HSUS spends less than 1 dollar helping hands-on shelters out of every 200 it raises. Safe Haven has been holding garage sales, dog walks, and jewelry and Tupperware sales to scrape together enough money to save the day. But it’s still $40,000 short with just five days to raise it.
The HumaneWatch Facebook group has approximately 169,000 members. If just five percent of you would dig deep and donate $5 each (click here to contribute via PayPal), you would literally create a miracle for dogs and cats in the middle of Iowa.
HSUS is sitting on enough cash to save hundreds (if not thousands) of shelters like Safe Haven of Iowa County. We’ve lost faith in that organization, but we’re betting on you doing the right thing.
So what are you waiting for? It’s just five bucks. You can do without that next mocha-mint-latte-chino. We’ll keep you posted.
Got a comment? Be sure to leave your thoughts below. From August 23 to October 29, 2010 we will be choosing the two best comments each week of 25 words or more, and awarding $100 (each) to the local pet shelters of the commenters' choice. Click here for more information and the official rules.
Comments
I saw your post about needing money for Safe Haven. I called but it said it would take a few days to return I didnt know if there would be enough time for that. So i’ll send my donation to the director. Rinthea Satterlee. I will send a money order to her. I hope it helps!
Made my Paypal donation. Took 5 seconds.
Everyone - THANK YOU for helping us! Email me with any questions you have. I have a “day job” so taking calls isn’t an option until after 5pm but i check email ALL the time .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
I am the founder of Safe Haven of Iowa County.
Go to our site http://www.wesavepets.com and read our story, our needs, and our hope to keep our doors open!
Thank you!!!!
Add me to the list of people who donated. Hope it helps because HSUS isn’t going to do anything.
Just donated $100. Be sure to add to add a message (in the area PayPal provides) that Humanewatch.org sent you!
Let’s show them how animal lovers can pitch in and make a difference (even if we do not have 11 million imaginary members and constituents)!
Spreading the word…
I would not be surprised if HSUS spent more money in Iowa 1) trying to put farmers out of business, 2) scaring consumers regarding the recent egg salmonella outbreak, and 3) trying to end greyhound racing in Iowa, than HSUS donated to any Iowa animal shelters.
All you have to do is look at how much money HSUS spent in nearby Missouri on the dog breeders ballot issue.
I used a credit card to send $10 and it took less than one minute. Let’s do this!
It was my honor to donate! It makes me proud that we all come together to help those in need. I admit though, I do get a little giddy knowing that we are doing what the H$U$ only claims it does! Spread the word my friends!!!
From a Safe Haven volunteer who has spent every waking moment for months worried about our fur babies and doing anything and everything possible to raise money:
BLESS YOU ALL !!!!!!!!
You all have donated $700.00 in 3 hours…. Amazing! Let’s take this viral and save our sanctuary by Friday Oct 1st! I’m so grateful to HumaneWatch for picking this story up. If there is someone in specific I can give a huge thank you to, please let me know!
Rinthea Satterlee
Founder, Safe Haven of Iowa County
http://www.wesavepets.com
Add me to the list of people honored to help out. I am a firm believer in karma….one begets karma through one’s actions. This group sounds like it is made up of individuals who had sacrificed much of their own personal time and money in the effort to save the lives of animals. They do good things and deserve good things to happen to them in return!
Done! Great suggestion and a great way for all of the HumaneWatch.org fans to show that they care about animals. Let’s put our money where our mouths are and teach H$U$ a lesson about helping animals.
THANK YOU all so much for your help! We have always thought that we are the little engine that could and by goodness that is what we at Safe Haven are doing! We will eventually get our forever home with the help from all of you and thank you Humane Watch for picking our story.. visit http://www.wesavepets.com and see what us volunteers have done and where Rinthea has come from with starting this dream. Thank you again!
I sent $10 via Paypal, quick and easy to do! My donation is in honor of my 2 Oklahoma Puppy Mill Survivors which were saved by a shelter! God bless you for the thankless work you do! My boys send tail wags and sloppy kisses!
Just donated $5, although I seriously wish I had more to give. Thanks for making us aware so that we could help!
Thank you so much for everyone that has donated to Safe Haven of Iowa County. We need a shelter really bad in this county,and one that is no-kill! Thank you Thank You
THANK YOU ALL for donating. Keep it up. We and all our furry friends are so grateful!
Thank You to everyone for donating!! The Safe Haven group of volunteers have worked VERY hard to try to make this happen. As Michael has said, they DO sacrifice a lot of their personal time and money to help this awesome cause. Thanks to all of your donations, they have a chance of achieving this goal, and these die hard volunteers can enjoy a much needed and much deserved break from their tireless efforts to make this happen. Thank you all!
Just donated $5, donated some earlier this year at a booth they had set up. If enough people tweet to someone like Ellen DeGeneres, she might show an interest and help. I hope Safe Haven can get the money they need 
Just donated $52. The slightly odd amount is because I donated $26 per a friend’s birthday request, then matched it with another $26 of my own.
The delicious part about it is the friend in question was another well-meaning H$U$ dupe, and in his birthday request, specifically asked that all his friends donate $26 dollars, (one dollar for every year of his age), to the H$U$ “to help dogs and cats in need, and assist in the fight against animal cruelty”.
I enlightened him as to exactly why I would never donate a singe penny to the H$U$, and told him I would donate the $26 to a genuinley deserving local shelter instead.
I can’t think of anyone more deserving than Safe Haven, and it tickles me pink to play my small part in doing an end-run around the best-funded group of lying, deceitful AR zealots in the world today.
You all have helped us raise $1,197.30 in the past 12 horus! Thank you! We have under 38,000 to go by Friday Oct 1. We arn’t giving up til the fat lady sings and you all have helped us get that much closer. Thank you Humane Watch!!!!!
Thank you all for reaching into your pockets to help out Safe Haven. This awesome no-kill group has done countless activities to be able to keep their doors open. All the furry friends thank you too! They have all been through enough already, please see that they have a better future!!! Thanks again!
I hope we can raise enough funds for Safe Haven. I donated $5 via paypal; it’s not a lot but it’s something.
I’m a donor. I have two wonderful shelter dogs. One came from a terrible hoarding situation. Without the help that you and your organization provide, I hate to imagine these animals dead or living a life where they wish they were. Because of people like you animals find happy, loving, cushy homes just as they deserve. I am donating in memory of my two shelter dogs who are no longer with me. I was honored to provide them a loving home and blessed to be repaid in unconditional love and sloppy kisses.
This is soooo great to see you all reaching out to help our critters…..they deserve it:) Thank you from another volunteer from Safe Haven to all of you, this is such a great cause:) Please spread the word:)
Speeding my little help of $25 to you. thank you HW for the tip.
Thanks for spreading the word on this worthy cause. I’ve donated $100 directly to the shelter via their website. Can we look forward to matching donations from the many deep-pocketed corporate sponsors of the Center for Consumer Freedom? Now THEY could really make a difference pretty quickly.
I look forward to future postings on this dedicated group of animal rescuers.
Thank you, HumaneWatch, for getting this all together - I think it’s amazing what people are will to do, even in the midst of a troubled economy.
Is there any way you can post some sort of regular up-date so we know how the fund-raising is going?
I know many of us are anxious to know if we are close to helping Safe Haven reach their goal.
If would like to help another shelter, there is a shelter in Drexel, MO that needs $4,000. They have only raised $188 since Aug 29th. :-( Here is their homepage where you can watch the news story about how their shelter was damaged: http://www.warmfuzzys.org/
UPDATE: As of last night at 10 pm we have received $3,100.30!!!! We are making progress and we arent giving up til the fat lady sings! Friday is our deadline to raise $40,000.00 to get out building up by Nov 1!!!!!
I made a donation and sent an email to my friends, suggesting they all donate. It would be great if the winners of this week’s contest would agree to support this shelter as their shelter of choice to help!
Made my donation via paypal…hope you meet your goal..the animals in your care are counting on us.
We have received $3,377.30 in donations towards our goal of $40,000 by tomorrow. One last push and we still have a chance…
Thank you is not enough for the generosity you all have shown with your donations to a rural Iowa shelter/sanctuary that is trying to make a difference in the lives of the many homeless cats and dogs. We are blessed to have you all on our side and a heartfelt THANK YOU to all!!
Easy to do - use PayPal and help a good cause! Fifteen bucks in twenty seconds! How hard is THAT? LOL! Raise The Woof!!
Great idea! Our shelter is trying to raise money to build a new, larger facility as the one we have now is not adequate. Keep up the good work!
I guess that to get the loan from banks you must present a good motivation. However, one time I’ve got a student loan, just because I wanted to buy a house.
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I would love to see this happen. Sharing with friends.