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Profiles in Enrichment tells the stories of USEC employees who have made great contributions to the company or our local communities.
Dave Gillum evaluating a Chow mix outside the Boyd County Pound. If this dog is not adopted, Gillum will try to find a rescue to take the dog.
It takes a special person to work a 12-hour shift and then go save lives, but that is exactly what Dave Gillum does on a regular basis. He isn't a doctor or emergency responder; he is just someone who decided to make a difference for abandoned dogs in his hometown of Ashland, Kentucky. Just recently, Gillum worked his normal 12-hour shift at the Piketon plant, and then made a four hour round-trip to drive a basset hound and a husky from the local dog pound to an animal rescue in Maysville, Kentucky.
This has become a typical schedule for Gillum who works in process operations at USEC Government Services at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, where he has been employed for 13 years. Last year, he found some spare time for he and his daughter Amy (Gillum) Fogelman to start a non-profit organization called Ashland Animal Rescue Foundation (AARF). Their efforts have saved more than 30 dogs.
Gillum and his daughter have developed a list of contacts at rescues throughout the United States. Once or twice a week, they visit the local pound looking for dogs that meet the criteria of rescues. "Most rescues are breed-specific but some take mixes," Gillum said.
Once they find a dog, they send digital photos along with a short description to rescue groups that may be interested. They work with local veterinarians in the Ashland area to make sure the dogs are spayed or neutered and that all shots are up to date. Finally they load the dogs into the car and drive them to the rescue group that will find them a good home. "We transport dogs to Lexington, Louisville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, even as far away as New York," Gillum said.
Gillum also works with volunteer transport coordinators who have access to a network of transport volunteers around the country. Through their contacts, the coordinators can break up long trips into portions that are 60-70 miles each.
AARF was started to help raise awareness of the issues of pet abandonment and to raise funds to offset the costs associated with finding the pets a new home. "Amy and I have spent a bunch of our money so far but it is just something that has to be done," he said.
According to Gillum, hundreds of animals are destroyed each year at the Ashland pound alone. "People would be amazed at how many good healthy family pets are euthanized every single day."
But Gillum says it is quiet moments in the car with the dogs that make it all worth while. "There I was driving the car to the rescue with a basset on my lap and a husky in the passenger's seat and I had a sense that those dogs knew that everything was going to be ok."