No ‘Home Sweet Home’
This dog is available for adoption from Fayette Friends of Animals in Menallen Township.
These two dogs are currently available for adoption at Fayette Friends of Animals in Menallen Township.
Joyce Rusinack, supervisor at Fayette Friends of Animals in Menallen Township, cuddles one of the many animals available for adoption at the center.
Tammy McGregor, supervisor at Fayette SPCA, holds Hoover, who is awaiting adoption.
Curly, who lives outside at the Fayette SPCA, makes his way down stairs in search of breakfast. Atop the hill, dog shelters are used instead for the many cats that are dropped off at the shelter
The effects of a nationwide recession are trickling down to the smallest of creatures.
A check with area animal shelters and rescue organizations show an increase in the number of people giving up pets and a decrease in pet adoptions.
“Not as many people are adopting as in the past because they can’t afford pets,” said Tammy Coleman, a volunteer for Fayette Friends of Animals. “There’s also a greater number of surrenders — that’s when people bring animals to us — because they can’t afford them.”
Fayette County has two shelters: Fayette Friends of Animals in Menallen Township and Fayette County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in North Union Township. In addition, Fayette Friends and They Deserve Better Dog Rescue, which is based in Smithfield, have volunteers who take animals into their homes until they are adopted.
“It’s been really bad — even pedigrees,” said Flo Fronczek, board president for Fayette Friends of Animals. “People can’t keep pets. They can’t afford them.”
“It’s slow — very slow. I think because of the recession and there are too many dogs and cats,” said Renee Alexander of They Deserve Better Dog Shelter, who, like other animal advocates, encourage people to spay and neuter their pets.
Tammy McGregor, kennel supervisor for Fayette SPCA, said, “Our adoptions have slowed to a certain extent. Our intake of animals is greater. We are constantly at a capacity level.”
McGregor noted the SPCA is mainly a stray shelter that has contracts with 36 municipalities in the county to pick up stray animals. It must be prepared to handle the calls, so that limits the amount of owned animals the shelter can take.
But McGregor said, “We have a resurgence of calls on owned animals. People have to move because of economic conditions and they can’t take their animals with them.”
The SPCA is taking owned animals as it has room, asking owners for a couple of weeks’ notice so they can work them into the shelter.
McGregor said the SPCA’s capacity is 70 dogs and about 25 cats, but if the shelter receives a mother cat and kittens, the staff can have more one animal in a cage, so the numbers go up. An example is what happened on a recent Saturday.
McGregor said, “Within 45 minutes of opening, we signed in 35 cats. People are not bringing in one or two.”
In addition to pet adoptions from the public, the SPCA receives help from rescue organizations whose members take in animals as well as local farmers who come in searching for barn cats and will take several animals at a time.
As for numbers, Fronczek said of Fayette Friends, “We can keep comfortably 25 dogs and 25 cats and we’re up to 40 and 50. Some animals are fostered. We have five foster homes.”
Coleman said, “We are constantly receiving phone calls all spring and summer and now in the fall with people finding stray kittens and cats. A lot of times we have people feeding cats and they become overwhelmed when the cats reproduce. That’s why at the shelter we strive at emphasizing the importance of spaying and neutering. People are also abandoning dogs more than ever. We just had two female full-blooded boxers that were found as strays, which we have since spayed and adopted out. We are also getting in litters of puppies.”
Alexander said They Deserve Better has six homes that foster dogs in Fayette County, West Virginia and the Pittsburgh area. While the organization usually fosters up to nine animals at a time, they are now taking as many as 15.
Some people are surrendering their pets because they have to leave their own homes and their new residences will not allow pets.
McGregor talked about a woman who had adopted a dog nine years earlier and had to surrender him because she was moving to a homeless shelter. When the woman got back on her feet, she contacted the SPCA about her dog. The dog was adopted and adoptions are confidential but the SPCA made some calls and the people who adopted the animal were kind enough to reunite the woman with her pet.
All three organizations want to find homes for these animals.
“We’re gladly looking for families to adopt,” said McGregor.
But people can also volunteer their time or donate supplies to help the organizations if they are not able to adopt.
Coleman said, “It costs a lot of money to feed and house the animals and also administer meds and treat sick animals. And a lot of our dogs and cats have been at the shelter for a very long time, sometimes for years, and that costs a lot of money.”
In a time when people are watching their money closely, animal advocates still believe there are benefits in owning a pet.
Alexander said, “A pet helps a lot of people with depression and health problems. A pet is constantly loyal and loves you. I couldn’t imagine my life without my dogs. They love you unconditionally no matter what. … There’s so much a pet can bring to your life. They teach people what love is about.”
For more information:
n Fayette Friends of Animals has a shelter on Searights-Herbert Road, Menallen Township, that is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. It’s closed Thursdays and Sundays. Call 724-245-7815 or check the website at www.fayettefriendsof animals.net.
n Fayette SPCA maintains a shelter at 215 Rankin Airshaft Road, North Union Township, that is open noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 3 p.m. Saturday. Call 724-438-3121 or visit www.fayettespca.com.
n They Deserve Better can be reached online at www.theydeservebetterdogrescue.org.