Impact Story: China Pittenger

The Drive to Save Animals 

Thursday is “surgery day” at UCAN. But for China Pittenger, owner of Stray Haven Rescue, the road to UCAN begins on Wednesday.

Every Wednesday, China climbs into her empty transport van to make the short drive to Northern Kentucky, returning later with 20–40 stray dogs and cats ready to be rescued. 

Each week, China confronts the reality that adoption alone cannot solve the animal overpopulation crisis—especially in nearby rural Kentucky, where she regularly pulls animals from euthanasia lists.

For 12 consecutive years, Kentucky was ranked last in the nation for animal protection laws. Thirty counties have no shelters at all. With nowhere to turn, unwanted animals are often abandoned in landfills or callously dumped in remote areas.

Yet even in these conditions, China sees hope.

“UCAN helps us keep adoption fees affordable for every family.”

Shelter workers, transporters, and everyday citizens step up to do whatever they can to save animals. Every Wednesday, that network converges in a central location where China loads her van for the trip back to Stray Haven. She calls these caring people her “front-line  troops.”

But rescue doesn’t stop with transport. Stray Haven has standing appointments every Thursday at UCAN. Spay and neuter services are not optional in rescue work—they are often the difference between an animal finding a home or not.

For China, UCAN makes her rescue and adoption work possible.

“UCAN’s low-cost spay and neuter services keep me in the business of saving animals,” she says plainly.

Making pet adoption affordable is critical. Traditional veterinary costs for spay and neuter procedures can push adoption fees into the $400–$1,000 range—well out of reach for many families. When adoption becomes too expensive, animals struggle to find homes, and some people turn to backyard breeders, perpetuating unsafe conditions for both pets and owners.

Stray Haven keeps its adoption fee at $215—intentionally affordable—and that is only possible because UCAN keeps its costs so low.

Without UCAN’s accessible, high-quality care, China’s rescue mission would be threatened. Instead, week after week, dogs and cats move from crisis to care, from shelter to home. 

“Our first mission is to rescue and adopt out homeless pets to amazing homes, plain and simple,” she says.

In a system that often feels endless, UCAN is the critical link that turns rescue into resolution—and makes Stray Haven’s life-saving work possible at all. 

China’s work is also about keeping families whole.

“One of my adopters told me her rescue dog saved her life—it pulled her out of a deep depression.”

Still, China does not linger on the happy endings. To survive the emotional toll of processing over a thousand animals each year, she has learned to acknowledge the stories—and then let them go.

“Otherwise, I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning,” she says.

That emotional distance is not indifference.

It is endurance for the long road ahead.