Hundreds of pounds of dog food stolen from Orangeburg County Animal Shelter, a lot of donations for the shelter to make up what was stolen and make the shelter continue to work

Orangeburg County, South Carolina – Hundreds of pounds of dog food and thousands of dollars worth equipment were stolen last week in Orangeburg County Animal Shelter. The shelter workers found out about the incident over the weekend.

According to Sabrina Faircloth, a volunteer in the shelter, all the volunteers and workers in the shelter were devastated when they found out what happened. The first thing they noticed were the new locks. She said that the old locks were broken and replaced with new locks and almost everything inside was taken.

“We were angry and shocked that anybody could possibly take all of this dog food. This is a county shelter that serves 1,100 square miles,” Faircloth said.

“We are so overflowing; we actually have dogs right now in our bathrooms because we don’t have enough places to put them. When they take from the animals that can’t speak for themselves, that’s just terrible.”

The shelter ended up to be a in a tough situation. With no food at all for the dogs, they had to make a decision whether they should buy food od medical supplies.

“This touches my heart because we have worked hard at becoming a shelter that doesn’t like to euthanize animals, and we don’t,” Faircloth said. “If we can’t feed them just the most basic thing that they need, then we. . .”

Completely desperate, they decided to post the unfortunate event on Facebook and the ‘tough situation’ started to improve in a matter of hours after the FB post.

Donations began streaming in from all over the community, some were donating money, while some were bringing dog food and/or medical supplies.

“I think we probably have more than what was taken. It is just incredible,” Faircloth said. “At our local Tractor Supply Co., they have pallets waiting to be delivered. It is just amazing.”

Over the weekend, people have been dropping off 40-pound bags of dog food at the shelter or ordering it from Tractor Supply Co. Assistant Manager John Toli says he is overwhelmed by the by the number of orders and the generosity of his community.

“We have so many nice customers that come in and want to help. It’s just heartwarming,” Toli said. “I came in at 10 o’clock this morning and we already had 20 plus orders from people who wanted to help. You can’t beat that.”

Toli added that they now have enough dry dog food. According to her, they still need wet dog food and cat food. They also need to replace the 30 crates that were stolen, a donation by FEMA. The crates are used for transportation of the animals in case of a major weather event.

The shelter is advising people looking to donate to continue to purchase donations through Tractor Supply Co. They say if you’d like to help with the shed fund, you can donate a gift card from the company.