Jackson animal shelter wins $30,000 grand prize from pet foundation

Local animal-rescue organization Mac’s Mission soon will install five kennel suites and a specialized intensive-care unit at the Jackson shelter after winning the BISSELL Pet Foundation “Support the Shelters” sweepstakes grand prize of $30,000.

The foundation focuses on ending animal homelessness and hosted the vote-based “Support the Shelters” sweepstakes to award the best animal shelters in the nation with funding.

The $30,000 grand prize will be allocated among three categories — $10,000 towards facility improvements, $10,000 towards spaying and neutering animals and $10,000 for adoption fees.

Mac’s Mission is a grassroots group led by Rochelle Steffen and a group of volunteers.

The group has rescued animals and treated a variety of animal maladies including gunshot wounds, mange and malnourishment.

Relying on crowd-funding to maintain three sheds, the small not-for-profit organization uses sheds as tiny rescue centers at its three-acre shelter in Jackson.

“We’re just a scrappy little rescue,” Steffen said. “We have amazing people, but we don’t have a big donor or anything like that who puts a bunch of money into our organization.”

Although she’s cared for animals her entire life, Steffen’s rescue mission began with one dog — Mac the pit bull.

Steffen rescued Mac in 2011 while she was a college student in her mid-30s after seeing a cardboard sign advertising pit bulls for adoption.

At three months old, Mac weighed just four pounds at the time and had mange when Steffen adopted him.

Because of his poor start in life, Mac suffered genetic issues in his hind legs and nearly died several times while undergoing five surgeries.

“We just kind of snatched him out of a bad situation, and now he’s kind of saving the world,” Steffen said.

The pit bull’s Facebook page “Mac the Pitbull” since has acquired more than 500,000 followers, which Steffen uses in her efforts to rescue animals such as Mac.

When one of the page’s followers mentioned the “Support the Shelters” sweepstakes to Steffen, she had low expectations of winning the national sweepstakes’ grand prize.

Reality didn’t set in for Steffen until she got a phone call from Cathy Bissell, founder of the BISSELL Pet Foundation.

“I nearly dropped my phone,” Steffen said. “I literally had to sit down.”

A team from BISSELL Pet Foundation traveled to Steffen’s animal shelter to deliver the check in person.

The organization is looking to broaden its capacity for care with the installation of a 16-by-44-foot composite shed to house the new ICU unit and kennel suites.

For Steffen, her mission is still the same — take animals in need, as Mac once was, and give them a better life.

“We get the worst of the worst and make them the best of the best,” Steffen said.

bmatthews@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3652