Nationwide Attention for Effingham County Animal Shelter

An online post of a dog found in a local house during the snowstorm earlier this month has led to nationwide attention for the Effingham County Animal Shelter.

A photo of the dog, in a dog carrier with no food and no water in a house believed abandoned, was picked up by the website Dogspotting Society and has received 10,000 likes on that site. That led to attention to the story from MSN and the website The Dodo, which is focused on animals and animal-rights issues.

The attention has led to calls to the local Shelter Thursday from California and from Maine as well as other nations.

Part of the attraction, says the Shelter's Vanessa Skavlem, is due to the Shelter now being a "no kill" shelter. Skavlem said businesses have donated items to be raffled to raise funds for the care of the animals no longer being euthanized.

The Shelter received 300 phone calls and 200 email messages, quite a bit to handle, Skavlem says, for a staff of two fulltime and two parttime workers.