Fred Martin Raises $12K for Angels for Animals
AUSTINTOWN, Ohio -- Fred Martin seems to have made a new friend, Marilyn, at the car dealership that bears his name.
“You’re more beautiful than Marilyn Monroe,” he remarked as he held the pup, a Siberian huskie/German shepherd mix.
Marilyn was among the guests -- canine, feline and human -- for an event Wednesday at Fred Martin Ford Mercedes Benz, during which Martin, president and owner of the dealership, presented a $12,000 check to Angels for Animals.
The dealership donated $25 for each new and used car and truck sold during the past three months to “help those who cannot speak for themselves,” Martin said. He had only expected to raise just $10,000.
Caring for animals takes “time, talent and treasure, and this is a bunch of treasure,” said Diane Less, founder of Angels for Animals.
“Everybody likes to think when they give money at the shelter it’s going to buy a shot for a dog or it’s going to buy a collar or something like that,” she said. “Today we had to buy a dryer, so sometimes you need those kinds of things. And the electric bill is immense. When it’s hot, the air conditioner has to run.”
One of the main services the Canfield animal shelter offers is paying and neutering animals. The best way to save animals is by preventing unwanted ones from being born, she said. Last year the shelter “fixed” 8,500 dogs and cats, and this year she anticipates that number to reach 10,000.
“What that one animal spay translates into is 30 animals just that year not being born, let alone 100 the next year and 1,000 the next year, however many survive,” she said. “So the key is getting that one job done right then.” The shelter also does adoptions, pet euthanasia, cremations and wellness services.
Sales in August at Fred Martin Ford were above a year earlier at the dealership, as opposed to the 0.4% decrease in sales Ford Motor Co. experienced overall for the same period, Martin said. Last month, the dealership sold 170 new and used vehicles, he reported. That's up from the 158 the dealership sold in August 2013, according to the Automobile Dealers Association of Eastern Ohio.
“We don’t see any decline at all,” Martin said. “Sometimes those of us who live and operate in Youngstown have a tendency to not think well of ourselves and that’s absolutely wrong,” he said. “We have great systems and businesses and charities in Youngstown.”
For Martin, his love of animals goes back to a dachshund his parents surprised he and his brother with when he was a boy.
“That dog’s name was Pretzel and of course he won our hearts over,” Martin recalled. “We called him ‘the dog with the electric tail.’ He was a great animal and he was followed by more than a dozen others in my lifetime.” His current dog is Rex, a “Heinz 57,” mostly beagle, he said.
Pets “deserve to be treated fairly and kindly and gently, and what they give back is impossible to count,” he remarked.
“This is amazing that Fred could help us out this much,” Less said. “This is buying a lot of help for the animals. Everybody wants to save animals. Unfortunately it’s a very expensive proposition.”
Pictured: Angels for Animal staff members join Fred Martin for the check presentation. From left: Keith Novotak, Diane Less, Martin And Lisa Kishok.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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