What: Animal shelter between Exeter and Washburn Anniversary:

Haven celebrating 30 years, Fornelli director since 2023

New:

Facility housing adoption center, cats; plans for new dog-centered structure in future

Local animal shelter plans to build indoor/ outdoor dog kennels

BY KYLE TROUTMAN

ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com The Haven of the Ozarks Animal Sanctuary is celebrating 30 years of serving Barry County and surrounding areas, and under the leadership of Director Jana Fornelli, the no-kill shelter has made major strides in modernization, outreach and facility improvements.

“I started in April 2023, and when I arrived, things had not been maintained as well as they could have been,” Fornelli said. “So, we started by really doing a lot of cleanup and having better processes in place to take care of not just the animals, but the facilities.”

Fornelli said one of her first priorities was improving operations and organization.

“Operationally, we have obviously put together written procedures on animal care, really gotten up-to-date with technology as far as computerizing everything,” she said. “People can put animals on our waitlist through our website, they can fill out the adoption paperwork through our website, and then as far as facilities, we have made a lot of changes.”

Those facility improvements have been significant, Fornelli said, thanks to community generosity.

“Facility-wise, we have, thanks to Pat Hall — a generous donor and lover of animals — been able to build a new cat housing facility and also our adoption center,” she said. “If you haven’t been able to see it, you should come out to see it. We did tear down the old original building, which had a lot of memories and lots of sentiment for people, but it really was time for it to come down because our plan is to build a dog facility with inside-outside kennels, which will help us a lot during extreme weather conditions.”

After moving into the new adoption center on June 20, Fornelli said the next phase of improvements will focus on the dog area.

“We are probably hoping for about 30 kennels in that,” she said. “It’s going to be really important for us to have some facility for dogs to go into, especially in the cold weather.”

While planning for the new kennels continues, the Haven remains full.

“We did have to take out some dog pens when we put our new building in,” Fornelli said. “We are at capacity. There’s a lot of factors that go into how many dogs we could really have, but we have increased our cat capacity, having more space for that.”

The new cat housing has already made a noticeable difference in adoptions.

“I was looking at our numbers, and we almost doubled in cat adoptions from the previous quarter since we’ve moved into the new building,” Fornelli said. “We’re really happy to see those numbers increase.”

On average, the Haven houses around 100 animals at any given time.

“Right now, we’re about 50-50 dogs and cats,” she said.

Fornelli’s focus since starting as director has been prioritizing quality of care over quantity of animals.

“My big thing was, we have to have the capacity to care for every animal out here to the best of our ability,” she said.

Beyond animal housing, Fornelli said outreach efforts continue to be an important part of the Haven’s mission.

“Another thing that we have been trying to do is offer some more things for the community, even if they aren’t able to adopt a dog from here,” she said. “We’ve been doing free vaccine clinics about once a quarter, and we’ve also been working with the Fido Fixers van, which is a mobile spay and neuter clinic. We’ve hosted two spay and neuter clinics in Shell Knob, and our next one will be here at the Haven on Nov. 13.”

The Haven’s next free vaccine clinic is scheduled for Nov. 6.

For those unable to surrender animals immediately, Fornelli said the Haven offers resources to help.

“If someone does need to put an animal on our waitlist — and I do know it can be quite a while before we get it in — there are places on social media to post,” she said. “There’s also Rehome by Adopt-a-Pet, and all of those resources can be found on our website. We also offer a coupon code so it only costs a couple of dollars.”

Despite these tools, Fornelli said full shelters remain a widespread issue.

“Unfortunately, every shelter around here is full,” Fornelli said. “They can call other shelters, but they’re probably not gonna get a different answer. A lot of shelters are closing because they can’t maintain what they’re doing financially.”

Fornelli said the Haven’s website, which was created by 2025 Cassville High School graduates Evan Butler and Elizabeth Butler, has become a central hub for information.

“I had two high school students, twins from Cassville, put together a new website for me,” she said. “I kind of told them what I wanted, and they made it very easy for me to update, because that’s what I require.”

Fornelli encourages people to use it as a resource.

“We do have a lot of information on our website, so if people can go there, it’s a good place to start,” Fornelli said.

In addition to its three full-time and three part-time staff, volunteers are vital to the Haven’s operations.

“We have 3 volunteers that come on a regular basis to help clean the cats, and about four or five that walk dogs twice a week.”

The Haven also welcomes groups and court-ordered volunteers who contribute their time.

“Some of [the court-ordered volunteers] come out on a regular basis, and then we have groups that come out once a month or sporadically.”

Schools also play a role in the Haven’s outreach and education efforts.

“We get a lot of school group visitors, and I’m actually working with the Shell Knob schools,” Fornelli said. “They decided to address a community issue, and the issue they chose was all the stray animals in Shell Knob.”

Fornelli said the students’ project aligns with one of the Haven’s key missions — education.

“All of the students are going to be involved in some portion of the pet project,” Fornelli said. “They’ll learn how to properly care for animals, what it costs to care for an animal, and what the population would look like without spay and neuter. I think it’s really cool because we have to start teaching the younger generation the importance of spay and neuter.”

As the Haven marks three decades of operation, Fornelli said she’s thankful for the community that has kept it going.

“We just want to thank everybody for their support over the past 30 years,” she said. “We’re looking forward to many, many, many more years.”

To celebrate the milestone, the Haven is offering a special adoption rate of $30 through the end of the month.

For more information about the Haven of the Ozarks, volunteer opportunities, resources or upcoming clinics, people may visit www.havenoftheozarks. org.