- 1. ASPCA Spay/Neuter Clinic Opens for Animal Rescuers in NYC
- 2. Pet Safety and Summer Items at the ASPCA Store
- 3. Disaster Relief Efforts Rush Supplies to Shelters Nationwide
- 4. ASPCA Happy Tails: Life’s a Beach
1. ASPCA Spay/Neuter Clinic Opens for Animal Rescuers in NYC
Earlier this month, the ASPCA took another progressive step in addressing animal homelessness in New York City with the opening of a dedicated spay/neuter clinic for animal rescuers in Ridgewood, Queens. The clinic is an interim facility that will operate through 2012, when we expect to complete construction of a permanent spay/neuter clinic at our Manhattan headquarters.
The new facility is outfitted with modern equipment, accepts appointments, and works in tandem with our transport services, which provide free rides to spay/neuter candidates including feral cats and cats and dogs from local rescue groups with a minimum of 20 animals. These transport services and our Queens clinic are part of a larger effort to make high-quality spay/neuter services accessible and affordable to all cats and dogs in New York City.
In addition to our five-borough mobile clinics, which treat 30,000 animals per year, we’ve recently launched a targeted spay/neuter program to identify neighborhoods in New York City with higher numbers of abandoned dogs and cats. To start, we’re targeting East Harlem and Manhattan’s Lower East Side with increased spay/neuter services, and monitoring the number of abandoned animals in those areas before our efforts and after.
"This is the first time anyone has attempted to chart the effectiveness of spay/neuter in New York City by tracking the number of abandoned animals before and after intense spay/neuter outreach," says Aimee Christian, ASPCA Vice President of Spay/Neuter Operations. "We hope this effort will have measurable and sustainable benefits that will be applicable nationwide."
Speaking of “going national,” stay tuned to ASPCA.org for all the latest information about our upcoming National Spay/Neuter Project. In early June, we’re hitting the road to spread the word about affordable spay/neuter services in a community near you!
For more information about the ASPCA’s spay/neuter services, or to find a low-cost clinic anywhere in the country, visit our Low-Cost Spay/Neuter database.
2. Pet Safety and Summer Items at the ASPCA Store
Craving the feeling of wind in your hair and sun on your shoulders? So are we! We’ve got the travel bug—and to celebrate the arrival of warm weather, we’re stocking the ASPCA Online Store with great travel- and safety-related products, at even greater prices! Order today and you could be hitting the open road with your furry friends by next weekend.
Pet Safety Gear on Sale!
For a limited time, eight absolutely essential pet safety items are 15% off, no coupon code required. Enjoy great savings while keeping your pet happy and healthy at home, in the car and even on water!
Summery Tees
Our message T-shirts are among our most popular items, and it’s no wonder—with so many color, size and design options, there’s a perfect tee for everyone in the family!
Road Trip!
We’ve made packing up and traveling with your pets easy with our rugged and space-efficient selection of carriers, bowls and food pouches.
You can feel good about shopping with us, because all net proceeds of your purchases help support our life-saving programs all over the country. For more tees, toys, gifts and pet supplies, visit the ASPCA Online Store 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
3. Disaster Relief Efforts Rush Supplies to Shelters Nationwide
In addition to rescuing and sheltering animals affected by flooding and tornadoes, the ASPCA has been working with PetSmart Charities to provide groups from Illinois to Mississippi with pet care supplies. Through that initiative, we’ve been able to help about 6,600 animals in 35 communities in nine states—and we’ve done it using a brand-new approach to animal disaster response.
ASPCA Logistics Manager Joel Lopez knew that PetSmart Charities had trailers ready to deliver supplies, but “we had never seen a scenario where there were so many hotspots so spread out geographically. So it was very difficult to determine where we should send the trailers,” he says. Then Lopez and PetSmart Charities Emergency Relief Manager Wanda Merling struck on a great idea: a pet supply distribution center. They seized on it.
The location was crucial, says Lopez, and considering the path of the severe weather and the location of our responders, “Memphis just made sense.” In the last days of April, the ASPCA gained access to three side-by-side warehouses of 7,500 square feet each and two huge tractor-trailer loading docks in the back. Almost immediately, the facility was filled to the brim with supplies—carriers, pet food, large fans, litter boxes and more. Then, the requests for help started pouring in.
After two weeks, the distribution center had received 23 trucks of supplies—each enough to help care for hundreds of animals—and had filled to capacity and emptied out four times. Working with a local moving company, we delivered and unloaded supplies for communities that could not pick them up.
“We were literally getting orders in the morning, and they were arriving at their destinations that afternoon,” says Lopez.
One recipient of these supplies was the Humane Society of West Alabama (HSWA), an all-volunteer shelter in Tuscaloosa, which has been using the supplies and distributing them to others in the area.
Jimmie Perry of HSWA reports that the deliveries she’s received have had a big impact on her community. “It’s just been unbelievable. And so heartwarming that people care,” Perry says. “It’s meant so much to us that people in other states have brought us things—and we’re doing our best to get those things to where they’re needed.”
For breaking news about our disaster relief efforts in Memphis and other locations affected by flooding along the Mississippi River, please visit ASPCA.org.
4. ASPCA Happy Tails: Life’s a Beach
Last summer, a young, frightened Border Collie was abandoned in a bathroom at the ASPCA Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital. The pup, named Roxy, was “a very sweet but terribly shy girl, and everything seemed to scare her, including new people and places,” recalls ASPCA Senior Manager of Behavior and Training Victoria Wells.
But slowly, with the help of kind ASPCA staff members and volunteers, and other canine friends who showed her how to be brave, Roxy started coming out of her shell. Soon, she was ready to go to a special Border Collie rescue group.
But that rescue never got the chance to meet this loving pooch; the person who volunteered to transport her there adopted her on the spot!
We caught up with Betsy Blee to ask her about life with Roxy, now named Lillie!
ASPCA: How did you decide to adopt Lillie?
Betsy: Seeing and meeting her was a done deal for us—we adopted her right away!
ASPCA: How did Lillie adjust to her new family?
Betsy: Very easily. She fit in beautifully with the male Border Collie we have, and the staff at the ASPCA had worked with her ahead of time.
ASPCA: How is Lillie’s life different now?
Betsy: I retired from corporate life in NYC and moved home to the coast of North Carolina. We now live one block from the water, where the dogs can run free virtually every day. They also get walks and free runs around wooded areas.
ASPCA: What do you love most about her?
Betsy: She is sweet and wants to please, is smart of course, runs like the wind, herds her brother, comes when called, loves to be rubbed and is very affectionate. Lillie dances at the fence when she sees us. I call her Leaping Lil when she does that because she jumps so high, up and down and up and down, and barks in such an excited way—it is too funny. She spins and leaps and barks and wags just to have her people back in the herd at home. Who wouldn’t love that kind of welcome?
Check out our Happy Tails archive for more heartwarming stories of true puppy (and kitty) love.