WHO WE ARE
​MOV Animal Safe Haven is a 501(3)(c) tax exempt nonprofit organization founded in 2017 to serve the Mid-Ohio Valley area of West Virginia and Ohio. Our goals are to help the animal victims of domestic violence and medical crisis to ultimately remain with their families by providing them temporary foster homes.
SERVICE AREA
While our regional focus is the Parkersburg WV and Washington County, Ohio areas, we will attempt to help those in the surrounding areas as called upon.
ORGANIZATION
We are all volunteer based, with a Board of Directors and a team of volunteer fosters that make our work possible.
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FUNDING
Funding for our work is necessary in two areas and is generated via donations and grants.
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Providing medical treatment for animals in our care. Whether routine vaccinations, spaying or neutering, or in some cases emergency vet care.
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As animals may be in foster for extended periods, we provide supplies to our fosters to reduce the expenses related to such care.
Message from our Founder
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I recall clearly the day a woman arrived at our shelter with two dogs wishing to relinquish them. Even as a volunteer, I had become too familiar with this practice but on this occasion it would turn out to be in no way ordinary as when asked if they were her dogs or strays, she said tearfull that they were not hers. They belonged to her daughter.
A daughter who had at last escaped an abusive husband but did so by going into hiding and requiring that her mother promise to get her two dogs to a safe place. The daughter, unable to take them with her nor risk her own mother's safety by allowing her mother to keep them, asked her to bring them to our shelter. The request was clear and thoughtful. "Ask them to send my dogs to rescue. Far away from here, so HE can't hurt them. Or you." Was her plea.
The mother herself admitted that she herself did not know exactly where her daughter was in hiding, honored her daughter's request although tearfully as she begged that we take these dogs and get them into a rescue somewhere that they could be safe, so she could fulfill her promise to her daughter.
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We took the dogs that day and within a few hours had them safely in temporary foster homes and within a few days they would be in a rescue in another state.
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Having never forgotten the desperation of that mother and the selflessness of the daughter who would give up her beloved dogs to keep them safe, I wanted to help others like her have an option other than giving up their pet in order to escape such abuse. It is in large part for this reason that MOV Animal Safe Haven came into being.
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Along similar lines, in 2016 a man name Tim Frazier needing chemotherapy to battle cancer who had for too long delayed treatment only because he had no one to care for his beloved dog, contacted our shelter out of sheer desperation asking for help, I could not turn him away. Realizing that some people will forego lifesaving treatment in order to keep their pets, this need was added to the mission of organization.
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Our goal is to keep pets in the homes of those that love them deeply but for such reasons need temporary assistance until they can get back on their feet. My hope is that no one will have to choose between their own health and welfare and their animals simply because of a lack of a safe haven.
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Carrie Roe, Founder & President
MOV Animal Safe Haven