About Everett Animal Welfare Group
Everett Animal Welfare Group is an all volunteer organization that works to reduce the number of animals put down in Escambia and Santa Rosa county-owned animal shelters in Florida through spay and neuter of cats and dogs; and Trap, Neuter, and Return (TNR) of community cats. We promote responsible pet ownership and the human animal bond through adoption, education, and collaboration.
We feed, foster, arrange spay/neuter, raise medical funds, hold adoption events, teach TNR classes, and share our knowledge and resources to help and empower the community to care for and provide for homeless cats, kittens, and dogs.
"Help Us, Help Them."
Everett Animal Welfare Group (EAWG) was formed by Cindra Everett Anderson, Sherry Everett, and Crista Everett in October 2018 and became a 501(c) 3 on April 24, 2019.
The group was formed in memory of Barney Everett (Rufus Barnett Everett, III) who was born April 8, 1939 in Memphis, TN and died February 20, 2018 in McAlpin, Florida.
Barney began loving animals at a very young age. When he delivered newspapers from his bicycle in Memphis, he often met many stray and hungry dogs along the way. As he went about his route, he would encourage the dogs to follow him all the way to his house where he promptly put them safely in his fenced backyard and went to buy dog food with his earnings.
In mid-life, Barney began meeting cats. The felines who were looking for food and shelter, often took up residence on properties that Barney owned, and he would feed the cats until he was able to pet them and put them in a carrier for Spay and Neuter, then care for them.
After Barney retired, he and his wife Sherry Huddleston Everett moved to Live Oak Florida. They and many other concerned citizens noticed the many free roaming cats in the county. They founded an organization in 2010 called “Save The Cats of Live Oak." While Barney loved dogs, the dogs did not seem to be populating out of control like the cats and kittens.
Save The Cats organization was instrumental in spaying, neutering, and vaccinating more than 1300 cats and kittens and found good indoor homes for more than 40 adoptable cats.
Many of the cats were unsocialized cats so they were humanely trapped, neutered, and returned (TNR) to their outdoor home and fed by concerned citizens and Save the Cats volunteers.
One of Barney’s last and greatest accomplishments was that of trapping and transporting more than 982 cats and kittens (that’s just 10-12 cats once a week) for spay or neuter and vaccinations during his last 2-3 years of life--thanks to the Clay County Humane Society which provided free spay or neuter one day a week. The impact from this project alone was of huge significance. If just half of the 982 cats altered were females and each female had only one litter of six kittens their entire lifetime, more than 2856 unwanted kittens would’ve been born in Suwannee and Lafayette Counties.
We know this is a terribly low estimate of lives saved because most females have multiple litters and then their offspring do the same. Barney truly believed that spay and neuter was good for the cats and good for the community.
EAWG wishes to honor Barney by carrying on his work:
The work of community education, collaborating with other animal welfare groups and shelters, and promoting and facilitating spay and neuter, foster care, and adoption.
These actions will help prevent the killing of healthy cats, kittens, puppies, and dogs in county shelters and will help prevent the suffering and death of fragile, newborn kittens and puppies born on the streets. Their lives are often painfully lost to predators like hawks or coyotes...or they die by drowning in heavy rains when the mother cannot move them quickly enough to safety, flea anemia, parasite infestation, disease, or starvation.
“Help us, help them “ was Barney’s motto.
