Giles Animal Rescue is not affiliated with the Giles County Animal Shelter, and our care falls under different adoption guidelines.

Our Mission

Our mission is to help homeless, neglected, and abused pets in Giles County, to place as many animals into homes or rescue organizations as possible; to offer assistance with spaying and neutering of pets in low income families; and to offer education to the community on the importance of spay/neuter, adoption, and other pet-related topics.

Our History

The group was founded in 1999 to change the practices at the county shelter, which had a 100% kill rate and no public hours. Our group successfully advocated to provide regular open visitation hours to improve the chances for adoption. We walked the dogs, socialized the cats, made sure water bowls were full, took in surrendered animals and adopted out others, networked with other rescues to place animals whose time was up. We also tried, with varying success, to provide bedding to keep the animals off the concrete floor. We purchased chip readers for the animal control officers and instituted a pre-pay spay-neuter program to avoid a large deposit requirement. The euthanasia rate was drastically reduced over the years. When the state vet did a surprise inspection in mid-June 2013, the shelter was briefly closed to implement required improvements to the living conditions. We cheered when the county finally hired a full-time shelter manager. At this point we left the shelter and expanded our foster, adoption and spay-neuter programs and rabies clinics.

Our Volunteers

We foster, adopt, organize, finance, and transport companion animals so they can be saved and have a chance at a good life. This costs a lot of money and we engage in many fundraising activities. We hold Drive-Thru Rabies Clinics. We transport pets to and from vets for emergency and routine visits, and to other rescues throughout Virginia, and beyond. Volunteers manage our social media and newsletter. We  devote much time and resources arranging low-or-no cost spay-neuters. We work with student volunteers, Lions Club and and Boy Scouts. We hold adoptions events and do background and reference checks on all potential adopters and foster homes. We have held wine-tastings, Smooch a Pooch, attended fairs and parades, judged pet shows, held silent auctions, even a fundraising shoe drive, collect ink cartridges, any many other ways to raise funds for our animals.