Colleton County Animal Services has received a $5,000 grant from Best Friends Animal Society in recognition of its work to increase pet adoptions. The grant follows the organization’s participation in the Bring Love Home Challenge, a national initiative held by Best Friends Animal Society during December 2025.
Nearly 300 organizations took part in the challenge, with 219 reporting results. Collectively, these groups helped 15,279 pets find homes during December. Colleton County Animal Services reported 82 adoptions that month.
Among those adopted was Sebastian, an adult Rottweiler who had spent over a year at the shelter. According to Colleton County Animal Services, “Sebastian was declining mentally at the shelter, out of options to help him, a desperate plea was issued to our community which resulted in Sebastian going to a wonderful foster home with an ‘Adoption Ambassador’, the program we chose to pilot as part of the challenge. Sebastian’s foster dad did a remarkable job of using social media to share Sebastian’s loving face and personality and in December, Sebastian was adopted by a family who has experience with the breed from three states away!”
Laura Clark, Director of Colleton County Animal Services, stated: “We spent all of December celebrating the cats and dogs who got to be in a home for the holidays thanks to our participation in the Bring Love Home Challenge. Being awarded this grant from Best Friends means we can keep that incredible momentum going! This challenge, and grant, will have lasting effects for the pets in our care, and for our community.”
The Bring Love Home Challenge encouraged participants to use strategies aimed at making adoption and fostering more accessible. These included reducing fees, simplifying applications, removing home checks, offering multilingual support for adopters and fosters among other measures.
Whitney Bollinger of Best Friends Animal Society said: “More pets being adopted and fostered means more lives saved. We’re proud to recognize Colleton County Animal Services for their commitment to lifesaving. Participating in the Bring Love Home Challenge got cats and dogs out of shelters and into homes in December, and we are excited to see this lifesaving continue with even more pets in Colleton County finding the loving homes they deserve!“
Colleton County Animal Services serves residents and businesses throughout Colleton County by providing animal welfare services including affordable spay/neuter programs as well as education efforts.
Best Friends Animal Society is known nationally for its mission supporting no-kill policies across American shelters since its founding in 1984.
For more information about Colleton County Animal Services visit colletoncounty.org/animal-services or follow them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ColletonCountyAnimalServices or Instagram @colletoncountyanimalshelter.
