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I had to write this column a few days in advance of publication, but as of the Thursday before Christmas we still had 126 pets in the South Jersey Regional Animal Shelter waiting for some special person to come scoop them up. There also were eight more cats and kittens at our PetSmart adoption center and 20 more pets out in foster care that are waiting to be discovered.

This may sound like a lot to you – in fact, it is a lot – but it’s nowhere near the number that we house on a daily basis through the year. It is not uncommon for us to have 225 to 250 dogs, cats and various other creatures in the facility at one time. From spring through late fall, we ordinarily have between 150 and 200 animals in foster homes, mostly comprised of litters that aren’t mature enough to be adopted yet. By Christmas morning, we hopefully will have whittled our numbers by another 10 or 15, and yet it’s still not enough.

As I look back on 2016, this has been our most successful year ever in terms of saving lives, and for that, the most important part of our mission, we are truly grateful. I also look back at it as the most difficult year we’ve ever had in terms of keeping up with the demands of providing everything necessary to nurture and maintain thousands of animals until they could be adopted, sent out to rescues or transferred to one of our shelter partners.

I can’t begin to tell you how grateful we are to all of you who supported our efforts. Whether you threw a little change in one our donation boxes, sent in a check, dropped off some pet food, volunteered here at the shelter or acted as a foster home, you are paving the way for our mission of finding homes for all adoptable pets.

Carolina

The road will be even more difficult to navigate in 2017 as we deal with new state Health Department regulations that will increase the cost of our veterinary care dramatically. Just when we have reached the point where the vast majority of our adoptable cats are being saved, the state has made it incredibly more expensive to provide shelter animals with the veterinary care they need to ensure their adoptability. We are still struggling through the Legislature’s mandate that all release animals must be offered for adoption for seven days regardless of health or behavior issues.

Happy New Year, be safe and remember to provide your pets with a quiet place to escape the fear of noisy celebrations on New Year’s Eve.

Source: SPCA anticipates busy, difficult challenges in 2017

Posted in 2016, SJRAS Articles