MIDLAND This Thursday, Permian Basin Animal Advocates (PBAA) will get a chance to raise money when Jordan’s Way comes to Midland to do a four-hour live fundraising event.
The live fundraiser – which will be a virtual event only – will take place from 6-10 p.m. Thursday at Midland Beer Garden located at 7112 W. Highway 80.
The PBAA, which has been around for about two years now, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, no kill organization that works with foster homes in the Permian Basin Area to rescue neglected animals from the streets and/or kill shelters and get them permanent, approved homes.
The organization strives to educate the community on the fundamentals of responsible pet ownership and the importance of spaying and neutering.
Jordan’s Way is an organization that shares meaningful animal welfare stories that inspire people to adopt. Their efforts are publicized on social media to influence the clearing of shelters.
“They’re a group that travels around the country to raise money for organizations like us so that we can save more lives,” PBAA volunteer Caitlin Egan said. “Jordan’s way is doing this tour across the U.S. it’s called the clear the shelter 50 state tour and they’ve selected 20 shelters in the state of Texas with PBAA being one of them. It’s pretty exciting. It’s going to raise a lot of awareness and get our name out there. We do a good job of raising funds locally but it’s not enough. Jordan’s way is really going to give us that platform to raise more money and make more of an impact.”
Originally, the idea was to do a 50 state tour where they’d go to shelters and do these fundraisers, PBAA board chairperson Kelsey Kuhrt said.
“But then COVID hit so they decided to do it a live event and do some crazy stuff to get the rescues money,” Kuhrt said. “They’ve been going around all over the United States and raising money for these events.”
The PBAA was nominated by local supporters in the Permian Basin and drew enough attention to garner Jordan’s Way support.
“Jordan’s Way asks for groups to be nominated,” Egan said. “We were not only nominated by people here locally but also by people across the country that have dealt with PBAA in the past including some rescues that we work closely with and transport a lot of dogs to. Some are in the northeast like Wisconsin. We’ve been nominated.”
To be among the 20 shelters in the state of Texas that Jordan’s Way will be going to is a big deal for the PBAA.
“It’s huge because we’re a big state and to be a part of those 20 shelters is huge,” Kuhrt said. “They want to focus on West Texas because the problem here is bad and everyone needs so much help. They picked five that are participating in West Texas. It’s a big deal.”
There are a multitude of reasons about why West Texas has been a problematic spot for people abandoning pets.
One of those reasons, Egan said, is because of the mentality of some people.
“There’s an old school mentality of (pets) being their property and so that’s one of the issue,” Egan said. “They’re not caring for them the way that most people do these days. A second reason is our economy. You’ll see a lot of influx in owner surrenders at the shelters dumping their animals and they’re leaving town or can’t afford to take care of them anymore. You can tie that in with the volatility of the oil and gas industry and the influx of people that move in and out. It’s unfortunate. There’s an old school mentality that we’re working to combat in hopes to change the way. I think everybody has a different reason for how they handle things but those two main factors play a part in our pet overpopulation.”
Another reason has been the post pandemic setting as people are returning back to their places of work and aren’t home as much.
“Here, recently, everything is going back to normal,” Kuhrt said. “People are going back to their job. People aren’t as home much as they were during quarantine. There are high numbers of owners abandoning animals there.”
The four-hour long virtual event will be streamed live on Facebook where community volunteers will be pied in the face, dunked in a dunk tank, eat wild hot and crazy things or catch dollars from a money machine, all while raising funds for the PBAA animals.
Showcased dogs and cats (on premises) will get treats or puppucinos every time a certain dollar amount is raised.
“It’s honestly pretty overwhelming. It’s pretty exciting. … We’re overwhelmed with the amount of unwanted pets here. our city shelter in midland has been taking in 20 dogs a day. With that space, the only way to make space for the new dogs is to either adopt them out, have rescues such as PBAA come in and pull them and find rescues for them. It’s massive to get this kind of exposure and get more donors. We can’t keep up with the intake. There are other groups here that do the same thing and they do a great job but it’s a community problem because some people are not being responsible pet owners. That being said, there are a lot of people in our community that do care and are donating but there’s not enough money to combat the problem. With Jordan’s Way and getting this kind of exposure is massive and really exciting.”
The PBAA has created sponsorship opportunities to underwrite challenges, treats and fun games.
For more information about PBAA, visit https://www.facebook.com/PBAnimalAdvocates/.
More information on Jordan’s Way can be found at http://www.jordanswaytour.com/project-page.
