Grand Forks animal shelter fighting to keep the doors open

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KVRR) – An animal shelter in Grand Forks is fighting to keep the doors open as they face financial stress. The Circle of Friends Animal Shelter has been raising money for the past 32 days, staying overnight, braving the elements and being at the adoption center to help these animals.

“We took time to care and we just believe when you are kind to others it does come back. We’re hoping that enough people will gather behind.” said Lauralee Tupa, the CEO of Circle of Friends Animal Shelter.

The shelter is trying to raise over $1 million to keep their operations going. A tall order, but the costs go into a lot of programs at their center.

“That’s how we can keep our programming going. Our month to month averages $150,000 month to month. What that includes is, we are helping this stray pet population. We’ve served over 1,400 pets this year.” said Tupa.

Despite the daunting task ahead of them, they are determined to keep helping people and animals in their community.

“We know the difference it makes,” said Tupa. “We’ve always have this focus on regardless what’s happening around us we’re just going to continue to be kind, continue to reach people, reach pets and find out what is going on.”

Because it is not only an animal shelter. They help those going through domestic violence situations, they take care of people’s pets while the owner is in the hospital. Even if it doesn’t go their way, and their doors are shut down for good, the shelter is proud of the work they’ve done in the region.

“At the end of the day we did everything we could to care,” said Tupa. “And if we don’t have the support and we can’t continue on because of financial constraints right now, we know that we did the right thing all along. We do have deep emotion and concern. Because we know that we help hundreds.”

So far, they’ve raised over $83,000.

For more information on the Circle of Friends Animal Shelter, click here.