All about Safe Harbor Farm

A short history...

Starting out as a small, but dedicated group called Cat-Kind, Inc., our organization quickly gains a reputation for helping cat-colony caretakers, most of whom are older residents utilizing retirement income or disability benefits to feed 5-50 cats. Over our first year and a half, 354 of these cats are spay-neutered, vaccinated and "fixed" in other ways, all at little or no cost to the cat caretakers. Dozens more are moved from hazardous locations & adopted by responsible individuals, and long-term support networks and friendships are forged as our group reaches out to individuals caring for community strays.

Aiming to do more, we christen our mobile Kindness Clinic for Cats & Dogs, a thirty-four foot, not-for-profit, low-cost spay-neuter clinic on wheels. In our first year of operation more than 1,000 additional cats & dogs are spay-neutered & vaccinated, most getting preventative veterinary care for the first time in their life. In downeast Carteret County, we host the first of many annual heartworm prevention clinics for dogs, with a whopping 50% positive rate at day's end!

Tragedy ensues as vandals pry open the fresh water supply outlet of our mobile clinic and pour gasoline inside, July 4th, 2004. This takes our clinic off the road several months for costly repairs, but it only strengthens our resolve to protect the animals from the likes of those responsible (we suspect a short list of crooked politicians, dog-fighters and bad vets who think the County belongs to them).

Kick us and we come up fighting! In January 2005, we purchase 61 acres of beautiful, forest-nestled land off of Route 17 in Maysville. Okay, so it's not so beautiful to start. All we need is to clear 12 tons of trash, find ways to deal with hundreds of rotting tree trucks and convince the Dept of Transportation not to expand Route 17 smack through the middle of our new shelter. Given a few dollars, a big dream and the help of some hearty Workamping RVers, we run electric lines, designate 7 acres as federal wetlands, roll up our sleeves and get to work. In response to our new vision, we officially change our name to Safe Harbor Farm, Inc.

The new year finds us still clearing & grooming the land, creating a road, a pond and the foundation for our new Feline Adoption Center (originally a 2-room schoolhouse moved from its first location in New Bern). A small group of dedicated volunteers keep the mobile spay-neuter clinic (now parked on our long dirt-road) in operation, and increasing numbers of animals foster with us, on their way to finding responsible, lifetime homes.

Just when we formulate Plan A... God comes up with Plan B, in this case another building to move and rehab into something special. It's a 100-year old church, slated to be burned down 1/2 mile away!! It matters not that, when our newest building is moved onsite, she has NO roof at all... given time, this will be our new & improved Kindness Spay-neuter Clinic, together with an apartment upstairs for a volunteer coordinator! Spay-neuter is where it is at! After all, it is SOOOOO easy to spay one mama dog or cat and SOOOOO hard to find homes for yet another litter of kittens or puppies!

In 2008 we continue to expand our programs, aiming for more spay-neuters (more than 3,600 performed to date!) and more carefully screened adoptions (averaging a hundred a year). We host a shelter externship for 4 senior veterinary students from Ohio and continue working on our hospital building. Utilizing a dozen volunteers, a ton of metal and more than 4,000 bolts, we raise our third building - our Dog Adoptions Building. This building is hurricane wind-rated to 155 mph, and it's where we'll all go come the next big storm. Its covered kennels and big playyard makes it the perfect place to house and rehab many more dogs.

In 2009, the work continues... more spays & neuters (topping 7,000 animals since we began); over a hundred more carefully-matched adoptions to forever homes; and more coordinated efforts with sister rescues. The foundation is poured for a new 16 x 24' dog isolation building. And a new 12 x 24' screened-in porch now graces our cat center.

At any time in 2010, Safe Harbor Farm is home to an average of 140 cats, dogs, goats, chickens and ducks, but more and more we find our organization going to the dogs! Yes, there are roughly 75 beloved cats, a dozen goats and a handful of birds living here, but they are our "homies." They're not up for adoption. Why the transformation? More than anything else, we credit Cesar Millan, nationally known as "The Dog Whisperer." Thanks to Cesar, our working pack of 28-36 dogs is balanced, mentally healthy and very well behaved, and our volunteers are better trained to rehabilitate good dogs for great new homes. Not familiar yet with Cesar's wonderful work with dogs? Check out his site at www.cesarsway.com.

2011 brings us several terrific new Workampers, and with their assistance we spend the year expanding kennels, installing new fence lines for the goats, landscaping the grounds and, in general, making our shelter as pretty as she is functional.. Hundreds more animals are aided through our Kindness Clinic, community outreach clinics and our adoptions program. We hire a new shelter manager to live onsite & aid our beloved family of 16 core volunteers, and we begin our search for a veterinarian to open a full-service practice next to our shelter.

What's planned for 2012? More of the same, plus the opening of our new 1-acre dog park with nearly 2 miles of dog-walking trails! Stay tuned!

Please become a member of the Friends of Safe Harbor Farm.

Consider becoming a valued volunteer!

Help a neighbor-in-need get their pet neutered at our Kindness Clinic.

TODAY, make a difference in the life of a needy animal.

Safe Harbor Farm's mission is to promote lifesaving spay & neuter surgery and responsible stewardship of cats & dogs through action and education.