Brad McKinney is an animal lover. Many evenings he sits curled up with his dogs, watching Animal Planet and being emotionally moved by the plight of America’s strays.

“There are so many dogs out there in these shelters that are being euthanized unnecessarily, and we are trying to find them homes,” McKinney said as he sat petting a beautiful white dog out side Rax Restaurant in Portsmouth.

McKinney is the owner of McKenzie Enterprises, which operates Rax Restaurant in Portsmouth, and eight other locations.

The Pound Puppy Adoption Fair was held Monday at Rax, and the Scioto County Dog Pound had brought several dogs in hopes someone would adopt one or two of them. There was even a cage of new puppies.

“We have been doing this for a couple of years now for a lot of local shelters at our nine locations and just believe in the cause,” McKinney said. “We started last year with the Kanawaha Shelter down in Charleston, and we have two restaurants — one in Cross Lanes and one in Charleston — and we held four events for them last year. We just had one three weeks ago for the Boyd County Animal Shelter in Ashland, at a restaurant right there across from the mall. We had one here last year for Sierra’s Haven and one for the pound. I’d like to get them started again this year. This is our second one for this summer.”

Pat Hall works at the Scioto County Dog Pound.

“It’s really great. We hope to do it every year with them to get some of the animals adopted,” Hall said. “We’re on the Internet now, and we get a lot of rescue and a lot of people calling us from out-of-state on dogs. So that has really helped.”

Because of stricter spay and neuter laws, some areas of the country have virtually no dog pounds, so Scioto County frequently ships dogs to homes in those areas where they are adopted.

“We get numerous dogs in,” Scioto County Dog Warden Tom Thacker said. “This county is full of dogs that need homes because the owners just give up on them. Don’t give up on your dog.”

Hall said there is a definite reason there are so many stray and throw-away dogs in Scioto County.

“Our biggest problem in this county is the people who do not spay or neuter their animals, and let their animals have litter after litter of pups and then the pound ends up with them,” Hall said. “It causes us to have so many dogs that if we can’t get them into rescues or have them adopted, we have to have them euthanized.”

It was a hot day, so McKinney was taking the dogs to the restaurant’s garden hose and giving them a quick rinse. Not a single dog complained. It was, as far as McKinney is concerned, a labor of love. McKinney indicated his company will continue to hold Adoption Fairs at his restaurants’ locations.

Dogs ready for adoption can be viewed online at www.petfinder.com/shelters/OH291.html.

FRANK LEWIS can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 232 or flewis@heartlandpublications.com