Supporting Our Community’s Lost and Abandoned Pets
FOMAS serves as an ambassador for public education, community-wide collaboration, and fundraising for Metro Animal Services.
WHO WE ARE
Friends of Metro Animal Services (FOMAS) is the sole fundraising entity for Metro Animal Services (MAS) in Louisville, Kentucky. FOMAS works hard to provide additional dollars for Metro Animal Services. Those funds make it possible for the shelter to go above and beyond, and offer services that exceed what MAS' government budget allows.
What We Do
FOMAS serves as an ambassador for public awareness, community-wide collaboration, and fundraising for Metro Animal Services. We provide this support through multiple ongoing programs and special capacity building projects.
The Harshaw Family Foundation Animal Shelter
In 2019, FOMAS helped to fund the Harshaw Family Foundation Animal Shelter, a full animal care campus, located on Newburg Road, adjacent to the MAS adoption facility, Animal House. This facility allows MAS to provide ultimate efficiencies in receiving and treating animals in an up-to-date medical treatment center, and adopting pets in a sterile, clean environment.
MAS Shelter
- Capacity: 150 Dog Kennels, 83 Cat Kennels
- Play Yards: 9
- ½-mile walking trail
- 4 stall livery
- Full veterinary surgical suite
2024
Animals Entered the Shelter
8,756
Adoptions
3,562
Animals Returned to Owner
1,269
Animals Sent to Rescue
1,009
Community Cats Returned to the Field
1,763
Live Release Rate
91.71%
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animals Entered the Shelter | 8,492 | 8,070 | 7,024 | 5,524 |
| Adoptions | 2,649 | 2,639 | 2,598 | 2,253 |
| Animals Returned to Owner | 1,215 | 1,313 | 1,064 | 945 |
| Animals Sent to Rescue | 1,007 | 987 | 769 | 536 |
| Community Cats Returned to the Field | 2,455 | 2,233 | 1,968 | 1,254 |
| Live Release Rate | 92.92% | 96% | 95% | 95% |
Happy Tails
A little update on one of the best boys, former long-stay champion Pawtucket!
As soon as we met him in the play yard, we were instantly in love. My husband even accidentally said, "give daddy that rope!" And from that moment we knew he was coming home with us. We adopted him after he had spent almost six months in the shelter and had been returned by two other families. We were definitely warned that he had a LOT of energy, and a little wild and wooly, but we were ok with that. I remember the first day we brought him home he basically levitated and was standing with all four legs on top of the kitchen table!
We learned quickly that he is incredibly smart (in some cases too smart), and he quickly picked up on simple commands like sit and stay and down and off. He loves to chase balls (and deer), sniff EVERYTHING, and will fall over in happiness if a stranger just makes eye contact with him. He loves life and loves adventures and is just 100 percent goodness.
We enrolled him in a beginner's obedience class and he graduated! We moved up to advanced beginners and Pawtucket has learned to heel and even jump over a jump completely off leash. He loves going to school so we are doing rally classes and plan on starting agility classes. We hope to compete soon!
There were definitely a lot of happy tears and cheers the day we adopted him, and I remember all of the staff happily exclaiming, "is Pawtucket finally going home?!" And he still refuses to shred his teddy bear that his shelter friend Haleigh gave him. - Leslie
