Claire Miles adopts a puppy from Pets, Inc. Nestled in a cozy wooded area between Leaphart Road and Highway 1 in West Columbia is Pets Inc., a no–kill animal shelter. Pets Inc. was founded in January 1992 by Patricia McQueen and Jane Brundage. Its philosophy is that there is a home for every animal and no animal should be killed if it can be helped.

“We have a responsibility to the animals on this planet,” said Pat McQueen, company president and avid animal lover and activist. “When the animals come to us, many have been mistreated, abused, and are sick. But when you look in their eyes and see that pain, how can you not try to help?”

McQueen said that sometimes they get animals that are too sick to be helped and occasionally they must be euthanized but that’s less than two percent of the time, if that much, she stressed.

Valerie Burns, a recent adopter from the shelter agrees with McQueen. She and her husband just got an elderly Boston terrier that employees found tied to a fence in their drive one morning.

“I first saw him online on their adoptions site,” Burns said. “He was so old and skinny and going bald. I knew no one would want him, and I wanted him to have a chance.”

The dog, aptly named by employees as Grampa Joe, was suffering from a severe case of heartworms and due to his malnutrition and weak physical condition, vets were afraid that the aggressive treatment needed for the heartworms would kill him.

Burns and her husband, along with McQueen did some research and found another route to treat the worms and while Grampa Joe gets “fattened up” and healthy enough for the aggressive treatment, no new ones will infect him.

“They told us that he probably only had six months or a year to live,” Burns said. “I hope they’re wrong, but either way, I want what time he has left to be the best time of his life. Every pet deserves love and care. I don’t understand people who mistreat their animals. Why even have them if you aren’t going to take care of them?”

Recently McQueen said someone dropped off four carriers containing 17 cats in woods nearby and just drove off. The cats were crammed into the carriers with no food, no water, nor a litter box. If an employee hadn’t heard them yowling, they may not have been discovered. McQueen said that was a huge challenge to the facility, but after all the cats were checked out and got their spaying and neutering and shots, all but a few have now been adopted.

“When people drop off animals like that, they just don’t realize the burden it places on everyone,” McQueen said. “We have people on lists that need help adopting out animals and that put everyone 17 places back. But at least the cats now have loving homes.”

Toni Fields also adopted a chocolate Lab from the shelter, and she said it was love at first sight.

“I love Labs anyway and when I saw Zoë, I knew she was meant to come home with me.”

Fields said she waited and half hoped that someone else would adopt the dog, but after she went back three times in a week and Zoë was still there she was hooked. She said that it was then that she knew it was meant to be.

“I got her on a trial basis, as I have other dogs at home, but the minute she walked in the house, she was right at home and totally accepted.”

Zoë’s story has a happy ending, but Fields said that she noticed that the dog had a funny way of sitting and asked the vet about it. After an examination, the Pets Inc. vet told her the dog had obviously been crated most of its life and was not let out often enough to run and stretch her limbs so they could grow and develop normally.

McQueen said this was a common problem with a lot of dogs that come their way.

“These people get the big dogs and don’t realize that they are only threequarters grown by the time they are five or six monthsold and crating stunts the growth and causes severe psychological problems, McQueen said.

“People say when the dog gets out of the crate, it’s too rambunctious,” she said. “Well if you were kept in a cage most of the time you’d want to run around when you got out too. I don’t know what these folks are thinking.”

Fields said her Lab didn’t seem to have any psychological problems, and the odd way of sitting doesn’t really inhibit her at all.

“It doesn’t bother her really,” Fields said. “And she’s brought so much love into our home that I think it must have been God’s will for her to come to us.”

Fields echoed Burns’s and McQueen’s sentiments about people who abuse animals.

“We’re supposed to take care of them, not hurt them,” she said as her eyes teared up.

“When I think about all the animals that get put down or are left to fend for themselves, I know I can’t help them all. But at least I helped Zoë and for now that’s enough.”

Fields is such an advocate of Pets Inc. that when her grandmother, also an animal lover, passed away in September, she asked that donations be made in her name to the organization.

McQueen said that when people do things like that, it helps combat the on–going and ever–rising bills the facility endures. Running the shelter is expensive and because they are a no–kill facility, they fill up fast, she said.

“We have a lot of fundraisers, and we have a lot of volunteers, but it sometimes seems like it’s never enough. We run a thrift store on Highway 378 called Thrift Avenue and sell non–profit pet supplies and food at the Pet’s Inc. shelter.

“That way people who can’t afford to make large donations can have the opportunity to shop with us for their pets’ needs at good prices.” McQueen said

McQueen also warns of buying animals from pet stores, back–yard breeders, or puppy mills.

“With Christmas coming, lots of people will be buying pets for their children,” she said.

“They need to know that this is a 15 to 20 year commitment. And if they buy from unknown sources they are perpetuating the horrors of puppy mills and unscrupulous breeders,” she said.

“There are so many loving animals just waiting for a home, if you want one, why not go to a shelter?”

McQueen encourages people to drop by the Pets Inc. shelter on Orchard Drive just to see the shelter. She said there are always animals running around and puppies and kittens for adoption.

“It’s tough at times, but we love each and every animal in there, and when we walk through and see that they are all healthy and safe and have food and shelter, Judy and I both know this is what we’re supposed to be doing. You can’t save them all, but you must do what you can.