No-kill animal shelter that serves 32 counties closing its doors

The Road Home Animal Rescue, which serves much of Middle and East Tennessee, will close after the 50 animals on site have been adopted, said founder and director Howard Loftin.

Loftin is resigning to care for his ill mother.

“I have tried to find another human to take over this great cause but have been unsuccessful,” he said in a farewell letter to supporters.

Road Home has the only safe haven program in Tennessee, according to the Humane Society of the United States. The rescue has helped more than a 1,000 animals in its existence.

But the Crossville-based nonprofit organization has been beset with financial problems since it opened in 2002. Grants and donations had not been enough to cover operating costs. Loftin, who runs the shelter with a part-time employee and volunteers, often waived his pay to buy supplies.

Besides abused animals, Road Home takes in pets of terminally ill children and elderly people moving into nursing homes.

It also partners with battered women’s centers. Many women won’t leave domestic violence situations because they can’t take their pets to shelters with them, Loftin said. So Loftin, often with the help of law enforcement, picks up the animals.

Road Home also started a program that accepts pets of people deployed for military duty and places them in long-term foster care or adopts them out.

Michelle Williams, interim director of the Young-Williams Animal Center in Knoxville, said the shelter’s closing will be a loss.

“Anytime a shelter or group fails or goes down, that’s just that many more spaces animals don’t have to go to,” she said. “The number of animals is not going to change. It impacts the overall euthanasia rate in the community.”

Loftin has put the Road Home property up for sale, but he said he won’t shut down until the remaining 18 dogs and 32 cats are adopted.

“We’re not going to close even if I have to sit here with a candle,” he said. “We have to get everybody a home.”