ROLE MODEL: COMPASSION
photos courtesy of Pets Alive
own website, and on various online pet finding services with good photos and well written descriptions.
community. Additionally, at our Westchester location we are offering low cost spay/neuter to lower income residents.
We also vet every animal carefully before adoption (testing for diseases, altering each animal, and treating any illnesses), so adopters can feel comfortable adopting a healthy animal from us. We make use of foster homes and we started a program called Seniors for Seniors, where we are working together with senior organizations (such as Office of the Aging and Meals on Wheels) to put senior animals in homes with senior residents. We cover all expenses for the animals and it provides a more difficult to place animal (seniors are notoriously harder to adopt) with people that want an animal in their life, but need a little assistance caring for them (be it physical or financial). What a win-win for our senior animals and our senior residents in the community!
We also check up on all the animals we adopt out. We check at 3 days, three weeks, and then again after two months. If the new adopter is having any sort of difficulty with their animal we immediately put them in touch with our trainers to work through and resolve issues. So many animals can stay in the home with just a little bit of help if adopters are willing to work at it. Our success rate is over 97% of these animals that stay in the home, rather than get returned for behavior issues! We also help people who are looking to surrender their animals for behavior issues by offering free training classes at our facility. Very often, people just need a little guidance and assistance to work through a difficult time and they wind up being able to keep their pet!
We have also recently kicked off our TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) program to help solve the issue of feral cats in the
Pets Alive has also established the Pet Chow Pantry. This animal food
52 Summer 2012 | American Dog Media
(and litter) pantry services the community. Sometimes people look to surrender their pets because they can no longer afford them. What an awful situation for them, to not only be temporarily jobless, but now to also give up your pet. We needed to put an end to that, and so we created the pantry to help people through these difficult times by providing food and litter to them, and in some cases medical care until they are back on their feet.
For more information or to contact: Visit their website at: www.petsalive.org Become a fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/petsalive Follow them on Twitter: www.twitter.com/petsalive Finally, visit their sanctuary in Puerto Rico - www.petsalivepr.org - where you can stay at the sanctuary and have a “rescue vacation” – helping to rescue animals and care for them on location!