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IVAR shelter at capacity, seeking foster homes for senior, ill pets · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Ivor shelter at capacity seeking foster homes for senior ill pets. Written
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  by Emily Beebe. This article is being read by an automated voice,
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  brought to up by Everlet. The Illinois Valley Animal Rescue shelter, located
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  at 116 Industrial Drive in La Salle is at capacity and in
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  need of foster homes, especially for senior and ill animals, as dogs
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  and cats continue to arrive from across La Salle County.
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  We’ve got three or four dogs needing to come in, said Chris
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  Tomsha, who founded the shelter 28 years ago and serves as its
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  director. We’re going to have to do some shuffling around and trying
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  to figure out where to put them.
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  Among the animals in the shelter is a dog with cancer who
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  was returned to the shelter after years in a home. The shelter
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  hopes to find her a foster family for the time she has
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  left.
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  The intakes come from every direction: recently, a stray pit bull found
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  in the country who was recovering after a seizure, and two Great
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  Pyrenees that arrived unexpectedly.
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  Animals often arrive for economic reasons.
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  We’re seeing a lot of homeless people, Tomsha said. They can’t afford
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  their animals anymore. They’re getting evicted. People going to jail. When they’re
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  seniors or in ill health, that’s the ones that we need the
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  foster homes for as a priority.
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  The shelter does not call itself a no-kill operation, and Tomsha is
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  deliberate about that distinction. No-kill shelters, she said, can pick and choose
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  which animals they accept. IVAR takes every animal that comes to its
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  gate and euthanizes only when an animal endangers a person or another
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  animal, or becomes gravely ill.
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  If you’re homeless and you come to our gate and you’ve got
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  a big old Rottweiler, no vetting, no place to live, we say
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  Come on in. How can we help you? She said. You just
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  never know what somebody’s life has brought to get them to that
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  point.
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  The shelter serves La Salle County only, holding a county contract to
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  take in strays picked up by animal control, and Tomsha said that
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  local obligation is why it doesn’t take in animals from out of
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  state.
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  We don’t go to flood zones or out of state and grab
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  animals, she said. There’s enough here that we have to take care
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  of right in our own backyard.
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  Foster families complete an application similar to an adoption application. The shelter
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  prefers local fosters because most animals need veterinary care and provide food,
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  supplies and other needs.
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  The shelter operates on about $400,000 a year, covering payroll, utilities, insurance
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  and every other bill a business pays, and survives on donations. Tomsha
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  oversees the dogs while her sister, Sue Jacobsen, who is the president
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  of IVAR, oversees the cats.
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  Those interested in fostering or donating can visit www.valleyanimal rescue dot net.