Shelter Shout Out: Onslow County Animal Services

Our monthly Shelter Shout Out series highlights the good work being done by animal welfare organizations across the country. From rescues and shelters to sanctuaries and fosters, there are so many people out there who are passionately providing care for animals in need.

This month, we’re featuring Onslow County Animal Services (OCAS) in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Throughout the month of May, OCAS ran a bed donation campaign on social media that was very successful. They’re slowly but surely working to fill every kennel with Kuranda Beds to provide the ultimate comfort for their animals.

We were excited to be able to interview Tyler Moore and Jennifer Monterforte at the shelter about this campaign. Check out the full interview below!

Q: Tell us a little about your organization.

A: Onslow County Animal Services (OCAS) strives to protect the health and safety of our residents, ensure humane treatment of animals, provide temporary shelter for stray and unwanted animals and promote responsible pet ownership. Our officers strive to educate citizens on animal welfare laws to promote proper care and humane treatment of animals.

Q: Why do you choose to use Kuranda Beds at your facility?

A: Kuranda Beds are our preferred beds due to their durability and ability to be properly sanitized. Most of our pets find them to be comfortable, especially when paired with a fluffy blanket.

Q: What brought about your need for more Kuranda beds and why did you start a new campaign?

A: In 2019, our county began an expansion and renovation project for our shelter. After the completion of this project, our pets were needing more than a blanket to make them comfortable in our shelter. Currently, we only have a quarter of the beds that we need to fill every kennel, so we initiated the campaign to try to fill every kennel with a Kuranda Bed.

Q: What steps did you take to start your campaign? Did you find the most engagement with this campaign on social media, through email newsletters or in person?

A: Our Administrative Assistant created a post on social media that sparked the campaign for our shelter pets. We have received such an outpouring of support from the community, and it still continues. Our goal is to fill every kennel with a Kuranda Bed!

Q: What were some key focuses to engage potential donors and to encourage donations?

A: Showing the pets using the beds plus showcasing the kennels without beds truly helped.

Q: What would you say was the most successful part of this campaign?

A: Increasing our community outreach is the true mark for success. From having our community donate the beds to helping put them together for the pets is truly inspiring.

Q: Is there anything you’d try differently or anything you learned that may help in your next campaign? (This can be for Kuranda beds, food, or anything else you’re encouraging donations for)

A: Next time, I think having a planned timeline would help in bringing in more donations and marketing would help with encouraging the public to be more active. However, I think hosting the “Slumber Party” helped.

Q: Your “Slumber Party” event sounds like a great way to involve your community in this bed drive from start to finish – how did this idea come about and what was the most memorable/notable part of the event?

A: We were wanting to do something fun with the volunteers and give them a chance to interact with other volunteers. We had all these beds to put together so I thought why not do a ”Slumber Party”? It was a great way to get volunteers to work together and interact with each other. I loved being able to interact with the volunteers in a relaxed setting and getting to know them a little bit better and seeing what they pictured their role in our shelter being. We hope to do more volunteer events like this in the future.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add? Kuranda-related or otherwise!

A: Having Kuranda beds in every kennel is the ultimate goal but we are always thankful for what our community shows up to help us with.

Like Onslow County Animal Services on Facebook and check out the Onslow County Animal Services website.

Donate Kuranda Beds directly to Onslow County Animal Services through their ShelterBeds Wish List!