How You Can Help: Cherokee Humane Society Needs a New Van

Someone stole Betsy, the 18-year-old Dodge Ram van that was used to transport animals around Cherokee County for the Cherokee County Humane Society, said Ottis Moore, general manager of the humane society thrift store.

“It’s our lead mule as far as animals taking them to the vet,” Moore said. “We have adoptions every Saturday and Sunday. We don’t adopt anything that hasn’t been spayed or neutered. We learned a long time ago that you can’t trust the public.”

The van was stolen last week and last spotted traveling towards North Carolina on Friday morning when the driver stopped to get gas, beer and cigarettes and drove off without paying. The owner of the convenience store saw the phone number on the side of the van, and called the humane society.

Because the humane society is a charity, they don’t get any outside money from groups, Moore said.

All of their funding comes from donations, fundraisers and the profits they make from the thrift store. Moore said they do not have enough money to replace the van and enough time and resources to find the one that was stolen.

“We’re trying to save animals here and run a thrift store, and we can’t be chasing a van,” Moore said.

Now, the humane society is looking forward and relying on the goodness of strangers and donations to replace their single mode of transportation.

How you can help:

• Donations through Paypal can be made through this website.
• Checks made out to the Cherokee County Humane Society can be mailed to 5900 Bells Ferry Road, Acworth, GA 30102. For each donation, they will send you a receipt and a thank you card, Moore said.
• If you want to donate to the thrift store, you can drop of items at the Bells Ferry location or call them to pick up. Moore said the humane society was one of the only groups who offer to pick up larger items seven days a week. They will also provide a tax receipt for these donations.