Our History
Eden Animal Haven began in 2010 when Leslie Sawyer and Bill Stoll took up residence on a piece of land owned by a psychologist and his wife who wanted it used for animal welfare. While living in a small house on the land, Leslie and Bill converted a barn on the property into a temporary cat sanctuary to address a pronounced need for cat rescue efforts in the Springfield area.
Eden formed a board and became a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation in December 2013, and received their animal shelter license from the Missouri Department of Agriculture in June 2016.
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In May 2017, Eden began construction on a state-of-the-art, cage-free cat building on the property, modeled after Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah. The new shelter building currently houses about 80 cats at a time. Our goal for the future include finishing the quarantine area for cats with infectious diseases, and we are currently in the process of adding catios to the larger community rooms.
2019 Statistics
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Adoptions: 170
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ASPCA Live Release Rate: 97%
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Trap-Neuter-Releases: 32
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In-Shelter Deaths: 7