According to http://www.onegreenplanet.org/ , there are about 70 million stray animals in the United States. Around 2.7 million dogs and cats are euthanized every year due to no room in shelters. In order to help these numbers decrease, Allen County Animal Rescue Facility (ACARF), in LaHarpe, Kan.,  tries their hardest to take in and adopt out local stray animals.

ACARF is a non-profit, no-kill animal shelter which opened in July of 2010. It consists of five workers: one director, one cat specialist, and three dog technicians.

Director of ACARF, Jamie Porter, has worked at the facility since their opening in July of 2010. She started off as a volunteer until 2013, and then she became the director and has stayed in this position ever since.

“My favorite part of working here is seeing all the adoptions take place,” Porter said. “Being able to watch the animals pick their owners and watching all of our hard work pay off is so rewarding to me.”

Recently at the facility there were 38 dogs and 21 cats needing to be adopted. In a year, around 350 to 400 animals are adopted to a new family.

“We have a jar of marbles to represent the number of animals that we have saved. There are 2,000 marbles in the big jar, which represents that 2,000 animals have been adopted from our facility,” Porter said.

People bring in animals that they either find on the streets or cannot take care of any longer. There have been over 2,700 dogs and 1,700 cats that have been brought in since 2010.

THE MONEY that goes toward this facility is raised from the public through fund-raising and donations and having volunteers from the community also greatly helps facility.

“We need more volunteers every single day,” Porter said. “The dogs and cats need socialization to make them more likely to get adopted so volunteers really help us and the animals out a ton.”

Every single animal in the shelter loves being able to meet new people.

“Jackie is a coonhound, bluetick mix that was found in Chanute. She lost her paw due to a trap when she was a puppy,” dog technician, Rebecca Klar said, “despite her missing paw, she is a happy dog and loves meeting new people and playing with other pups.”

Any help is loved by the workers and animals.