The Butler County Humane Society has started a holiday collection drive to gather supplies. Adding items to the collection box Tuesday at Friedman's at the Greater Butler Mart are, from left, Humane Society Executive Director Lynette Vybiral, store manager Paul Fleming and Crystal Stewart, the volunteer in charge of the collection effort.

The Butler County Humane Society is feeling a holiday pinch: donations are down because nobody thinks about its animal shelter during the holidays, and the shelter's population is up because of the recent cold weather.

To close the gap between a growing animal population and shrinking supplies, the society has launched a donation drive this month.

“The holiday collection drive started Dec. 1 in different locations, but we are hoping to have people collect to the end of March,” said the volunteer in charge of the effort, Crystal Stewart of Butler.

Donors may drop supplies off at the society's shelter at 1015 Evans City Road in Renfrew or call the society at 724-789-1150 to learn the location of the nearest collection box.

It's especially important now, said Lynette Vybiral, executive director of the society, because the society's shelter is housing “45 dogs, 90 cats and a lot of kittens.”

“Adoptions slow down at this time of year,” said Vybiral “because people are not looking to add a dog or a cat to the household during the holidays.”

And while donors are apt to forget the shelter during the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, Vybiral said the number of animals brought to the shelter is increasing at the same time.

“Cold weather drives more strays out” into the open, said Vybiral, and other dogs and cats are dropped off at the shelter as their owners become unemployed or move out of the area to take other jobs.

And since the Humane Society is a 100-percent community-supported institution, the holiday collection drive for food, cat litter and cleaning supplies, among other needed items, is critical, said Stewart.

The shelter goes through 30 50-pound bags of cat litter every two weeks, said Vybiral.

“People never think about cat litter, so we wind up buying it,” she said.

And a 40-pound sack of dog food will feed one dog for two weeks, she said.

She added it's not just food and litter the shelter needs but also items such as paper towels, window cleaner, buckets and office supplies.

She added the shelter is always short of peanut butter which is used to fill the kongs — interactive dog toys given to each canine resident.

“Anything we don't have to purchase for the shelter, such as flip-top sandwich bags which we use to cover the end of cat litter scoops, cleaning supplies,” are on the society's wish list, said Vybiral.

Boxes are being set up at various Butler County businesses to collect donations to the Humane Society.

Last week, the society was setting up a box in the Friedman's supermarket at 210 Greater Butler Mart.

Paul Fleming, the store manager, said, “We've run local things for as long as we've been around, 113 years. We pride ourselves on being a local grocery and doing these things.”

Stewart said she is still looking for businesses to serve as collection sites, especially in the Slippery Rock area.

“This is the first year for the supply drive, and we're hoping that the people who helped us this year will help again. We hope it will be an annual thing,” Stewart said.

The Butler County Humane Society is asking for the following items in its donation drive:• Canned dog and cat food• Non-clumping cat latter• Purina or Pedigree dry dog food• Chicken and rice dry dog food• Grain-free dog food• Purina Cat Chow dry cat food• Strong leashes• Strong rubber dog toys• Cat toys• 39-gallon trash bags• Peanut butter• Bleach• Stamps• Copy paper• Blue Dawn dish soap• Paper towels• Toilet paper