Animal shelters helping you ‘fix the ex that you couldn't'

Yahoo

11-02-2025

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Local animal welfare organizations are helping the heartbroken channel their feelings into a good cause.
Animal shelters and wildlife conservation organizations in Central Illinois are using the season of love to raise money for their causes. Some of these include River Kitty Cafe, TAPS No-Kill Animal Shelter, and the Wildlife Prairie Park.
Until Valentine's Day, River Kitty Cafe is partnering with Peoria County Animal Protection Services for its 'Neuter Your Ex' fundraising program. For $25, PCAPS will name a cat after your ex that is set to be spayed or neutered. Once the cats have healed from their surgery, the shelter will post pictures of them with their new names.
Animals at the Peoria Humane Society get blessed
According to Alex Menke, the kennel services manager, River Kitty Cafe will be donating all the money raised back to PCAPS. The shelter plans on using the money to help with different things they need in the cat rooms, its spay and neuter programs, as well as its trap-neuter-vaccinate,-return (TNVR) program. As of today, the café has raised over $2,000 for the shelter.
'This is our first time doing something like this. We didn't know if people would be into it— if people would really donate the $25,' Menke said. 'Our original goal was like $500. We thought that would be so cool if we raised $500.'
'So now being at $2,000,' she added, 'we're just blessed and thankful for the community so far.'
TAPS No-Kill Animal Shelter in Pekin is also hosting a fundraiser during the entire month of February in the same vain. According to a Facebook post, for $10, the shelter will add a name of your choice to its kitty litter.
In Hanna City, the Wildlife Prairie Park is bringing back its 'Love You or Love You Not' fundraiser. Through this program, people can donate to the park and symbolically name a cricket, rodent, or fish after someone they love or hate.
'It's not your typical chocolate or flowers that people usually get for Valentine's Day,' Brielle Kuchinski, the lead animal feeder at the park said. 'Getting a cricket, a rodent, or a fish named after you; it's just something fun, something goofy. I feel like we all kind of need that in our lives.'
Kuchinski said the organization relies on extra community support. Funds raised from this program will go towards feeding and taking care of the animals, as well as any supplies needed. Crickets are $10, rodents are $25, and fish are $50. Every name submitted before Thursday will be featured in a feeding video on the organization's social media page.
Kuchinski hopes this fundraiser will help raise awareness about the animals.
'Taking care of these animals is so important because a lot of these animals can't survive out in the wild,' She said. 'A lot of them are endangered, a lot of them people think are a nuisance. But here at the park, they're able to come and have fun and kind of see the cool side of the animals.'
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