A family in the town of Corning is on a mission to build a shelter for rescue dogs that face possible euthanization. As YNN's Katie Husband explains, the not-for-profit organization Tanner's P.A.W.S. is hoping the public will step up to help save animals in need.

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CORNING, N.Y. -- Dogs are a man's best friend. Especially for a local family who wants to help dogs like their own four-legged companions in the town of Corning.

"Currently right now, the dogs that are strays, a lot of them are picked up, unfortunately their homes are not found so what's happening is they're being euthanized. And, we really want to prevent this from happening and that way Tanner's P.A.W.S. can step in and adopt these dogs and make them available for adoption out in the community," said Christie Speciale, founder of Tanner's P.A.W.S.

The dog control officer for the town tells YNN there hasn't been an increase in the number of dogs caught. Speciale says, Corning still needs a shelter because the nearest ones are in Bath or Elmira.

"We don't have one here in Corning so, we actually sold our house and moved to the Town of Corning in a permitted area to build a kennel to start up Tanner's P.A.W.S. to help rescue animals," explained Speciale.

This is where the organization wants to build the kennel here on College Avenue but is unable to do so until the proper funding is secured.

"The shelter itself is going to be over $25,000, the actual cages are going to be another, about $6,000. We need the funding right now to be able to do that and we're about at a quarter of our goal," said Speciale.

The planned kennel will have twelve runs for the adopted dogs, but if the not-for-profit organization receives the funding from the community it has the potential to get bigger.

"We are not going to be doing public intake at first, again it will be based on available funding, but we will be rescuing those at high risk for being euthanized and taking those and finding homes for them. We're also looking for foster homes. The more foster homes we have the more animals that we can save," said Speciale.

Speciale says they need the funding by the end of the year to break ground on the kennel.

If you are interested in making a donation to the organization, you can visit their website.