Castaway Animal Rescue Effort
Owner: Melissa Sartin
Founded: 1992
Address: 1328 W. Sunshine St., Ste. A, Springfield, MO 65807
Phone: (417) 875-6565
Web: www.carerescue.orgProducts/Services: Nonprofit animal rescue and adoption service
2007 Revenues: $171,206
Employees: 4 (15 regular volunteers)
Melissa Sartin's labor of love was dropped on her lap nearly 20 years ago.
Sartin's neighbors in the Cassville area knew she had a soft spot for animals, and when they had an unwanted dog or cat, they knew Sartin would take care of it and find it a good home.
"I didn't tell people I would take the animals," she recalls. "We lived on a lane that was probably a quarter of a mile, and they would drive down there and just dump animals. ... Of course, I had to deal with that."
By 1992, Sartin was playing foster parent to as many as 25 dogs and cats at any given time, and she decided to embrace her fate and incorporate Castaway Animal Rescue Effort, or CARE, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Now, CARE annually rescues and adopts nearly 1,000 dogs and cats.
Picked off 'death row'The size of her operation has grown steadily through the years.
Twelve years ago, Sartin moved to 15 acres about 12 miles south of Aurora, where she and volunteers built a sanctuary and rehabilitation center. About seven years ago, she opened an adoption center in Republic and then moved the adoption center after two years to 1328 W. Sunshine St., Ste. A, in Springfield. Three years ago, Sartin opened a thrift store next door to the Sunshine Street adoption facility to help financially support CARE's operations.
Of CARE's $171,206 income in 2007, $41,745 came from adoption fees at $65 a pop, $40,943 came from thrift store sales and $88,517 came from donations and grants, according to board President Mary Crawford. The 2007 operating budget was $166,682.
Sartin, who works about 60 hours a week, no longer accepts animals from the general public. Instead, she almost exclusively rescues animals from "death row" at Springfield-Greene County Health Department's animal shelter or takes abused dogs or cats confiscated by law enforcement or other agencies.
After five days, if an animal isn't claimed by its owner from the health department's animal shelter, the animal is euthanized. Every year, the county animal shelter, 4002 N. Farmer, takes in about 4,000 dogs and cats and about 75 percent of them are euthanized, according to Kevin Gipson, director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. A few animals at the county's animal shelter are reclaimed by their owners, but CARE is responsible for the vast majority of survivors, Gipson said.
"We work with them very closely in ensuring that they take as many adoptable dogs as they can place," he says. "They've just been a wonderful partner."
A tough jobSartin says her semiweekly visits to the animal shelter are the hardest part of her job.
"The most heart-wrenching thing is walking through a facility, like an animal control facility, looking at 75 animals that all are scared or shy - they all have their individual personalities - and knowing that I only have room for 15 that day, and trying to make the choice which of those animals gets to live," she says.
Sartin, four employees and 15 regular volunteers give the animals medical care and nourishment and spay or neuter the animals before putting them up for adoption. About 800 animals found new homes through CARE last year.
Growth plans call for a larger adoption center in Springfield that would include a spay-and-neuter clinic, Sartin said. The group is looking for an affordable place to lease.
"What really makes this whole thing worthwhile is when you see an animal come in that's skinny, sick and scared, and when you spend weeks with that animal to rehabilitate it, and you see it wag its tail and kiss somebody, and then (the people) take it home with them," Sartin says. "That's the reason we do it."
Golfing for CARECastaway Animal Rescue Effort, or CARE, is holding its first CARE Charity Golf Tournament on May 5 at Millwood Golf & Racquet Club. Team entry fees for the four-person scramble are $500. Registration begins at 12:30 p.m. with a shotgun start at 1:30. For more information, call Jill Brown at (417) 840-9730 or e-mail golf4theanimals@gmail.com.
