News from the Noteworthy by Susquehanna SPCA

SQSPCA Working Beyond the Confines of the Shelter

At the Susquehanna SPCA, one of our primary focuses currently is extending our impact beyond our walls. The shelter is consistently full, but we know that, day in and day out, the needs of our community are great. We have been working hard to find ways to not only continue providing our high level of care to animals relying on the shelter as a safety net, but also to help people and animals before they find themselves in need of a cage or a kennel, to keep them together.

Industry wide, it has been found that animal shelters and rescues were using discriminatory practices by only adopting to people with pristine veterinary records, fenced-in yards, full-time jobs, etc. To change this way of thinking, we had to embrace and respect the human-animal bond. Truth is, we all know people who take better care of their pets than of themselves. We certainly don’t want it to come to that, but we also don’t want to see someone who deeply cares for their pet be forced to surrender it because they are going through a tough time and can’t afford spay/neuter or basic care.

There are several ways in which we here at the SQSPCA are working to improve and foster that special human-animal bond. For one, we don’t have a paper application that mimics a loan application. Instead, we see personal interactions with potential adopters as an opportunity to engage and educate. Admittedly, there are instances when someone leaves without an animal, but that is when, after much discussion and consideration, it is determined not to be a good match. At times, our adoption counseling team will spend hours with potential adopters.

We also now have a full medical team—including a full-time veterinarian—making use of our state-of-the-art medical suite five days a week. This allows us to provide low-cost spay/neuter for feral cat colonies, known as community cats, as well as for animals belonging to folks who income qualify. Our pet pantry is available and mainly offers food and litter, but if people express a special need, we work with them to help. We host a Here to Help Hotline, which encourages people caring for animals to reach out for help before their situation worsens and animals suffer, and host free rabies clinics for dogs, cats, and ferrets in conjunction with the Otsego County Department of Health.

We have also significantly increased the number of animals placed in foster homes. Comparing this year to 2020, fosters are up by 38 percent. Placement of an animal in foster is always preferred to housing them in the shelter. This keeps our kennels and cages open to help more animals and gives the animals in foster the experience of a couch instead of a cage as they wait to find their new forever family.

The takeaway is that the Susquehanna SPCA is an organization constantly working to meet the needs of our community, and we are not afraid to change or grow to make that happen. With the incredible dedication of our supporters, we are able to reach our goals and, in this case, increase our impact beyond the shelter walls.

Stacie Haynes is the executive director of the Susquehanna Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.