ANNUALREPORT ACCTPHILLY
Our Mission
ACCT Philly’s mission is to provide shelter, care and life saving efforts for homeless, abandoned, and abused animals and to protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Philadelphia, providing a benefit to all of the citizens of the city regardless of race or economic status.
Letter from the Executive Director
The year 2023 was an extremely challenging one for animal shelters throughout the country. Not a week went by when there wasn’t media covering a shelter in crisis due to a shortage of capacity. Philadelphia was no exception, as we saw our intake of dogs increase by 25 percent beginning in July, with 1,000 more dogs taken in than in 2022. Despite the surrender prevention resources offered by us and other organizations, many Philadelphia residents found their personal circumstances made it impossible for them to keep their animals.
As a result of the efforts of our dedicated staff, volunteers, rescue partners, fosters and donors, we still made progress on many fronts, and 14,718 of the animals who came through our doors – dogs, cats, pigs, chickens and even alligators – were reunited with their owners, adopted, or transferred to rescue partners to continue on the road to finding a home.
With intake increasing, and dogs in particular not finding placement as quickly as in previous years, we were faced with making difficult decisions. In order to eliminate the euthanasia of healthy, adoptable and treatable animals in Philadelphia, significant changes will need to take place in our community. An increase in available housing that is affordable and pet friendly, an increase in the spaying and neutering of pets, a decrease in irresponsible breeding, a shift in how we look at and treat both pets and wildlife in our community and an increase in empathy for and support of those struggling to keep pets and those trying to help them, are just some of the changes that need to happen. But making change that is sustained takes time and resources, and there is no pause button we can press to stop intake while we work to meet those challenges.
At ACCT Philly we are committed to doing everything we can to be part of the solution, starting with improving the lives of the animals in our care. While 2023 was challenging, we made considerable progress on this front:
·In the spring we struggled with a disease outbreak of both pneumovirus and canine flu. As the only open intake animal shelter in Philadelphia we don’t have the option of shutting down our intake unless it can be diverted, exacerbating outbreaks. With significant help from the community and partners, we created a temporary shelter within the building to help us isolate and treat dogs, and we have not had canine flu since. Utilizing PCR testing and population tracking we have been able to make better treatment decisions and adjust our disease response.
Additionally, thanks to a generous grant from the Irving and Phyllis Millstein Foundation, in June we unveiled our first-ever radiology suite. We took nearly 500 xrays in the first six months of its operation, providing more accurate information from which to make treatment decisions, and which we could share with rescue partners.
We invested in building infrastructure, increasing our dog housing by 36 percent and beginning significant improvements to our HVAC systems. While this work is not yet completed we are already able to see major improvements in our ability to manage communicable disease and provide a more comfortable environment.
·We invested as well in our programmatic work. We hosted Dogs Playing for Life, which helped us begin to organize playgroups, and partnered with the Philadelphia Zoo to invest in our people and provide trainings. We relaunched our pet pantry through which we helped more than 1,200 people and pets in need.
·We expanded our lifesaving efforts and participated in 49 offsite adoption events, as well as partnered with two out-of-state shelters to institute monthly transports of cats, helping 300 cats find homes and counting. As we continue to look for new ways to save lives, so do our dedicated volunteers, who contributed more than 14,000 hours to helping improve the lives of animals while in our care, as well as helping them have the best chance at finding a home.
While no one knows exactly what 2024 will hold, we do know it will continue to be very challenging. We also know that Philadelphia’s animals need us now more than ever and we are committed to being there for them and to working toward a day when all healthy, adoptable, treatable and savable animals find a safe and loving home.
Sarah Barnett Executive Director
Dogs
Including 986 puppies, 4,029 adults and 1,050 seniors. adults and 936 seniors.
Other
Including wild animals, critters, farm animals and one very large alligator.
Animals picked up by our Animal Protection Officers. Calls responded to by our Animal Protection Officers.
People and pets assisted through our Help Desk.
Distributions through our pet pantry.
100,000
Unique
ACCT Philly - Animal Care and Control Team of Philadelphia - is the region's largest animal care and control provider and the only open intake animal shelter in Philadelphia, serving the City by contract. ACCT Philly operates from a 33,000 square foot City-owned facility in North Philadelphia, and handles nearly 18,000 animals a year, from dogs and cats to small animals, reptiles, birds and wildlife. ACCT Philly provides field response 24 hours a day, every day of the year for the 1.5 million residents of Philadelphia.
Nearly 100 employees make up ACCT Philly’s workforce, helping people keep their pets, assisting the public with strays or their own animals, and providing daily care and enrichment to animals in our care while also addressing their medical needs and spaying or neutering them. We also find animals temporary foster placement or adopters, or we transfer them to a rescue partner or transport them to a wildlife rehabilitator. We respond to calls from the public about animal concerns ranging from injured or aggressive wildlife to dogs left outside in the heat or cold without shelter.
Close to 100% of our workforce lives in Philadelphia and 40 percent of our workforce live in the ten lowest-income zip codes. More than 60 percent of our workforce are members of Local 488 of AFSCME’s DC33 public health and safety union. While nationally about 70 percent of the average animal welfare organization’s workforce is white, ACCT Philly is proud to be an outlier, with more than half our workforce identifying as nonwhite. We continue to focus on providing opportunities to individuals regardless of race, religion, or socioeconomic status.
ACCT Philly is a second chance employer, and we partner with a program that trains incarcerated individuals how to care for and train shelter dogs. Multiple employees who were previously incarcerated continue to excel and be promoted at the organization.
Training and Workforce Development
Working at an open intake animal shelter is extremely challenging, and we’re grateful to our staff who have chosen to make this their career. With an added focus on providing training and support for our staff, we have increased our the quality of care animals receive. The training we provide their positions and improve the performance of the organ have been able to facilitate individual and group compa employees who are interested, providing staff with the mental health in a difficult environment.
In 2023 our medical staff were trained to use our new radiology equipment which was made possible by the Irving and Phyllis Millstein Foundation for Animal Welfare and performed nearly 500 X-rays by the end of the year on dogs, cats, and even a turtle!
In addition to monthly continuing education provided by Penn Vet's Shelter Medicine division and internal training, we hosted Dogs Playing for Life, a nationally recognized organization known for its exceptional training in running playgroups for shelter dogs. The training session was a huge success for not only our staff and volunteers, but for the dogs who participated.
Thanks to the training, ACCT Philly staff and volunteers now have a better understanding of how to run playgroups and incorporate them several days a week, with plans to increase playgroups in the upcoming year. The dogs in our care will have the opportunity to play with each other, which reduces their stress levels and increases their chances of finding their forever homes.
We also partnered with local experts at the Philadelphia Zoo to provide training on appropriate care, triage and nutrition for reptiles, as well as emergency first aid training for animal-related injuries. Nearly half of our staff attended the training at the Zoo, and we look forward to increasing our collaboration going forward.
Piece by Piece
Facility Improvements and Repairs
In 2020, ACCT Philly was granted full use of the 33,000 square foot building in Hunting Park by the City of Philadelphia. This expansion increased the available space by 50 percent, allowing the organization to improve housing conditions for animals and create a better working environment for the staff.
The City and the Board of Directors considered relocating to a different city-owned building, but none of the available options was feasible. This was mainly due to the unsuitable sizes of other buildings or the high costs of renovation. The current building, provided rent-free by the City to ACCT, enables the organization to direct its resources toward caring for animals and supporting related programs. Moreover, the building's convenient location benefits both employees and the animals, as it is situated in the community where many staff members reside and where most of the animals in need are located.
In 2023 the building underwent significant enhancements. A previous food storage area was transformed into a much-needed radiology suite, thanks to a generous donation from the Irving and Phyllis Millstein Foundation for Animal Welfare. A temporary play area was also set up for dogs in isolation, allowing them to enjoy some off-leash time outdoors while recuperating. Extensive repairs were carried out on the parking lot and internal/external drainage systems. Additionally, a comprehensive evaluation of the HVAC systems was conducted, and work commenced to rectify numerous shortcomings that were affecting the building's environment, impacting both employees' well-being and the health of the animals under our care.
Two additional rooms underwent renovations – one now serves as a designated area for staff and volunteers to interact with dogs and evaluate their behavior, while the other functions as a peaceful space for up to seven dogs needing adjustment time. Furthermore, the establishment of two essential isolation rooms has added 14 more kennels. Alongside 10 new kennels in the main area, the total capacity for large dog kennels has risen from 59 to 89, boosting our overall capacity by 34 percent.
Our Essential Partners
Love Local Partners
ACCT Philly relies heavily on rescue partners to help our animals find forever homes. Our extensive network of over 170 rescue partners have undergone a thorough vetting during the application process. They provide care for numerous cats, dogs, and other animals with medical or behavioral challenges who require extra attention and treatment before finding forever homes. Additionally, we collaborate with wildlife partners who aid in rehabilitating the many injured or ill wild animals we receive annually. In 2023, 5,208 animals were transferred to rescue partners.
Our partners, who are primarily volunteer-run and foster-based, play a vital role in supporting ACCT Philly. While we strive to find homes directly for animals, rescues are essential in our efforts to save lives. They not only take animals from the shelter but also help animals avoid the shelter altogether. This year, we were delighted to offer $43,000 in donor-funded grants to our rescue partners to help cover the costs of caring for animals they took in. Additionally, we reimbursed over $15,000 for veterinary expenses incurred by our partners. We are deeply thankful for each and every one of them.
Foster Program
Our foster parents also play a crucial role in saving the animals of Philadelphia, as 2,771 animals were placed in foster care in 2023, marking a 15 percent increase from the previous year. The invaluable support from foster parents meant that no neonatal kittens were euthanized due to placement issues during the summer. Our Itty-Bitty Kitty Committee ensures we have on-call overnight fosters ready to take in any after hours arrivals. This program has significantly boosted the survival rate of young kittens.
On average, over 300 ACCT dogs and cats are under foster care at any given time. To assist animals in foster care, we have ramped up adoption events, increased social media exposure, offered behavioral support through certified trainers, and piloted a telehealth option for additional medical support.
Animals in Foster Care
Our Supporters
ACCT Philly is proud to be the organization chosen by the City of Philadelphia to offer animal care and control services to the city's residents and animals. While our contract with the City was adjusted to accommodate rising operating costs, the support of individual donors and corporate and foundation partners is critical to ensure the best possible care for the city’s animals. We greatly appreciate the support of individuals and organizations who recognize the significance of our work, benefiting all the animals and residents we assist annually. In 2023, individuals and our Board of Directors contributed over $1.2 million, and our corporate and foundation partners played a significant role in our achievements.
Spring Point Partners Life of Riley
Spring Point Partners Life of Riley has been a partner of ACCT Philly since 2019, providing funding and additional support that has allowed us to expand and improve our surrender prevention efforts, as well as strengthen our infrastructure enabling us to better serve the community.
Irving and Phyllis Millstein Foundation for Animal Welfare
The Irving and Phyllis Millstein Foundation for Animal Welfare has made a significant impact for animals through its support over recent years. In 2022 the Foundation provided a grant of $100,000 to create a radiology suite which was completed in 2023, the impact of which will be seen for years to come. At the end of 2023, the Foundation granted an additional $40,000 for no-cost vaccines and microchips for pets of owners facing financial hardships.
PetSmart Charities
Throughout our history ACCT Philly has faced a variety of challenges, yet PetSmart Charities has remained a steadfast supporter, consistently offering substantial funding to bolster our adoption and lifesaving initiatives. They have also fostered connections that have led to saving more lives. For example, their monthly cat transport initiative in 2023 helped place over 300 cats in Cape Cod and New Jersey, and PetSmart King of Prussia hosts our cats in its in-store adoption center.
Bissell Pet Foundation
The Bissell Pet Foundation supports animal shelters and pets nationwide, and we greatly appreciate their collaboration. Their contributions include emergency grant funding for ACCT, organizing thirdparty assistance, and sponsoring ACCT in various Empty the Shelters initiatives. These events have successfully found homes for hundreds of animals, freeing up vital shelter space for incoming animals. Additionally, ACCT Philly is a valued member of the Bissell Pet Foundation National Shelter Alliance.
15/10 Foundation
The 15/10 Foundation, established by We Rate Dogs, aims to support dogs with medical or behavioral challenges. ACCT Philly is proud to be the Foundation’s inaugural open intake animal shelter partner and grateful for the sponsorships they have provided.
Greater Good Charities
With more than 10,000 cats coming through our doors each year, the amount of wet food we use is not insignificant, nor is it inexpensive. In 2023, a generous in-kind donation of more than 50 pallets of wet cat food from Greater Goods Charities fed our cats, saving tens of thousands of dollars.
Special Thanks
We are also very grateful to the support we received from all of the staff at Philadelphia Animal Specialty and Emergency Hospital (PASE), the University of Pennsylvania Shelter Animal Medicine Program and Philadoptables.
Our Volunteers
“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time h h h heart.”
ACCT Philly relies greatly on the hundreds of active volunteers -including 259 new volunteers - who dedicate themselves to improving the lives of the more than 200 animals who are housed at the shelter at any given time.
In 2023, volunteers contributed 14,583 hours of service at the shelter doing everything from walking dogs, to socializing cats, to washing tons of laundry, making sure the dogs and cats always have clean bedding.
Volunteers are a major force in promoting animals for adoption, providing candid photos, videos and insights into their behavior and personalities that help them find homes. Volunteers also provide invaluable support in administration, communications and development. In 2023, $10,000 was raised through an incredibly successful volunteer run designer bag bingo event, and dedicated volunteers facilitated fundraisers with local busin s.
Foodies Club
Enrichment plays a crucial role in maintaining the well-being of animals in a stressful shelter setting. Our Foodies Crew is dedicated to providing enrichment activities for all our animals. They spend hours each week filling kongs with peanut butter, stuffing paper towel rolls with hay for small animals, offering catnip to cats, creating peanut butter milk bone sandwiches, and crafting pupsicles – just to name a few examples! By stocking the freezers with these treats, we ensure that our animals receive daily enrichment to keep them engaged and content.
Transport Volunteers
We transfer thousands of animals to our rescue partners each year, but as our rescue partners are spread throughout Pennsylvania and neighboring states, getting them from here to there is a challenge.
Enter our transport volunteers! Whether they chauffeur a dog or cat, a car full of guinea pigs or a 300-pound pig, they are literal lifesavers, taking animals on the next leg of their journey to find loving homes.
Transporting can be a relatively easy yet very impactful way to volunteer and help save a life. The faster an animal can get to a rescue, the more quickly space is freed up for another animal who needs a temporary home.
Photoshoot Crew
Our volunteer photoshoots have been instrumental in finding forever homes for numerous animals. These photoshoots are organized monthly by volunteers, with local photographers and decorators generously donating their time and skills. The heartwarming images capture each animal’s unique qualities and show them in their best light. By capturing each animal's unique qualities, these heartwarming images make them more appealing to potential adopters. Thanks to the dedication and talent of our volunteers, these photos are shared on social media and in the animals' profiles, significantly boosting their chances of being adopted. Each month the Photoshoot crew creates a different theme including ending the year with the highly anticipated Holiday shoot. Who doesn’t want to wear matching pajamas with a shelter dog?
Offsite Volunteers
Our partnership with PetSmart Charities has helped expand our ability to find homes for our animals through offsite adoption events, and in 2023 PetSmart began hosting our cats in their in-store adoption center at King of Prussia. This wonderful opportunity would not exist were it not for a group of volunteers who provide twice-daily care to the cats, meet potential adopters outside of events, and transport cats to and from the center. Additionally, we have started doing monthly adoption events at the same location and have added additional store locations for events. The events have helped showcase ACCT Philly, and more importantly have allowed both foster and shelter animals to get adopted!
Welcome Committee
With hundreds of animals arriving each week, it’s all hands on deck to not only get photos and videos of dogs, but also get to know them more so they can be better matched with rescues, fosters or adopters. The Welcome Committee was created by volunteers in 2023 to focus on getting information on new arrivals and has helped many dogs find homes or rescue quickly, freeing up critical space for the next dog in need.
Social Media Volunteers
It’s a little-known fact, but there are several social media presences for ACCT Philly that are run by amazing volunteers! A critical resource for people searching for their pet, the Lost and Found Animals of Philadelphia – Powered by ACCT Philly page is run by dedicated volunteers who post not only animals in our care but reports of lost pets. The ACCT Philly At Risk Cats page shares cats in urgent need of adoption or rescue, and has helped save countless lives by posting their information. Lastly, the ACCT Philly Instagram account is entirely volunteer created and run, with more than 43,000 followers who see adorable adoptable animals and learn about our work.
Helping Hands
We’re grateful that so many businesses value giving back and incorporate doing so into their culture. In 2023 we hosted corporate volunteer groups from more than two dozen local businesses who helped complete much needed projects around the shelter. Many of these projects are daunting or would require multiple staff or volunteers to complete them, but that makes them perfect for outside businesses and what better teambuilding than to help shelter animals? We also hosted the annual Philadoptables “Clean Up Day” at the shelter. The team helped put together new equipment including sunshades for play areas and landscaped the grounds.
Community Outreach & Communications
New Website
We were proud to launch a brand-new website for ACCT Philly in 2023 which was many years in the making. The new website is significantly more accessible, with the entire site being viewable in each of the eight languages spoke in Philadelphia. It is also more user friendly, with adoptable animals being easy to filter and view, upcoming events being listed, and news highlights being shared. With 100,000 unique visitors each month, ensuring that our website is easy to navigate is crucial.
Community Programs
Our Pet Pantry relaunched with twice a month distribution, and currently has more than 200 monthly participants. There are no income requirements to participate, and participants also often receive other kinds of support through our Help Desk. They are required to have their animals spayed or neutered, however we assist in facilitating and covering the cost.
Our Help Desk fielded more than 4,000 requests for assistance, providing individuals with support in keeping their pets out of the shelter and having surrender be a last resort.
Communications
We’re extremely grateful to those in the media who cover our work and help spread the word about how people can help. With more than 1,200 editorial mentions and over 300 broadcast mentions, our work was covered nationally by outlets including but not limited to CNN, the Daily Mail and Newsweek, and locally by 6ABC Action News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY, NBC10, CBS3, PHL17 and Fox29.
Offsite Adoption Events
In 2023 we re-launched our offsite adoption events in the summer, doing 49 events in the last half of the year. While some events are in the city, we focus on the suburbs to get our animals in front of more potential adopters. Events included PetSmart adoption events as well as special events at the Boozy Mutt, First Fridays in Ambler, Bike Night in Huntingdon Valley, Petapalooza in Chestnut Hill and many more. We look forward to getting our animals in front of even more potential adopters as we build up our event support.
Why Our Work Is Increasingly Needed
Rising Dog Population
It is estimated that nationally 23 million families adopted pets during the pandemic. Since that time, the leading organization compiling data on animals coming into shelters has reported a dramatic increase in shelter intake. This trend has unfortunately impacted the number of dogs coming into ACCT Philly more than most shelters. In all of 2022, ACCT Philly took in 5,076 dogs, and that number increased 19 percent to 6,065 dogs in 2023. However, this problem has grown even more severe since the summer of 2023. Dog intake in the last six months of 2023 was up 21 percent from the last six months of 2022.
Intake of Dogs by Month
According to data collected from owners surrendering their pets, the biggest reasons for parting with their pets is relocation, landlord limitations, homelessness, and financial challenges in pet care. In 2023, the United States experienced a 10 percent rise in mortgage foreclosures compared to the previous year, with Philadelphia County at the forefront. This surge in housing insecurity directly correlates with the uptick in pet surrenders. Owners are faced with no other option but to surrender their pets when they lose
Increasing Cat Population
While our cat intake increased by almost 20 percent in 2023, rising from 8,883 cats to 10,613 compared to the previous year, our community of rescue partners, fosters, and adopters played a crucial role in preventing any cats from being at risk of euthanasia due solely to space constraints. The uptick was primarily in owner surrenders rather than strays, with housing and financial instability cited as the main surrender reasons. Our Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, consisting of overnight fosters for neonatal kittens requiring round-the-clock care, helped us navigate another summer without euthanizing any neonatal kittens received after hours due to lack of placement.
Thanks to PetSmart Charities, we established a partnership with St Hubert’s Center for Animal Welfare and the MSPCA in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, resulting in the transportation of more than 300 cats to new homes.
Though Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is a highly effective method to reduce the number of unowned cats in the community, it is not covered in our contract with the City and relies solely on donations. A generous contribution from Cynthia Silber created the Fix Philly Felines Fund, enabling us to cover the cost of offsite surgeries for trapped cats, who are released to their caretakers after recovering overnight at ACCT Philly. Additionally, ACCT practices return-to-field for community cats brought to the shelter. Unless it is unsafe to return the cat to its pickup location or if the cat seems unable to survive outdoors, many unowned cats brought to the shelter are spayed/neutered before being returned to where they were found. This approach, increasingly common at shelters, ensures limited adoption space is reserved for cats truly in need of care, rather than those thriving outdoors. It also prevents unintentional rehoming of owned outdooraccess cats. In 2023, over 1,600 cats were returned to the field.
See you later, Alligator!
A walk through the shelter guarantees encounters with a range of animals beyond just dogs and cats. An interesting request arose when a woman called inquiring about rehoming her alligator. The reptile had been left behind by her partner who had kept it since it was a baby a decade ago, housed in a basement room. The woman, feeling afraid of the alligator, estimated it to be around 5 feet long and revealed it hadn't been fed for a month. Despite having a vast network of rescue partners, finding a suitable placement for an alligator of this size was challenging. Eventually, an alligator sanctuary in Michigan agreed to take in the reptile, and a volunteer pilot was found to transport him via a small plane. Our officers embarked on the retrieval mission, only to discover that the alligator, affectionately named Big Mack, was actually 8 feet long - a size
Upon arrival at the shelter, he was placed in a temporary enclosure. Carefully, the staff untied him, removed the tape from his mouth, and prepared a small pool for him. Upon seeing the water, he immediately submerged himself as much as he could and basked under the heat lamps above.
Mack stayed with us for a week, and though the conditions were not ideal, he seemed content. Every afternoon, a staff member would refill his pool and spray him with the hose. Fortunately, a wonderful sanctuary, the Jupiter Alligator and Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Florida with a holding facility in Pennsylvania, offered to take Mack in. The sanctuary's founder collected Mack from ACCT and transported him to a quarantine pool until he was ready to move to Florida. When he was introduced to his new pool, he swam leisurely in circles, taking in his new surroundings.
Given his size, it seemed like years since he had been able to swim freely. After almost a year, in early 2024, Big Mack was relocated to the sanctuary in Florida. There, he enjoys a spacious enclosure with swampy water, ample space, and the sunshine he had missed for a decade.
City Hall Horse
New Beginnings
On a quiet Sunday afternoon, our dispatcher was alerted to a plea for help from the police regarding a fallen horse outside City Hall. It is crucial to act swiftly in such cases, as horses are at risk of serious harm when down for extended periods. The horse had been immobile for two hours, heightening the urgency of the situation.
When staff arrived, they found the horse in a state of giving up, as she had stopped trying to stand. Spectators mentioned that the horse had been ridden too fast down the street towards City Hall circle, slipped on the pavement, and was abandoned by her rider who had not returned. Fortunately, our team used a nearby police barricade and, with the assistance of several officers, managed to slide it under the horse to provide leverage to help it stand up again. The horse, nearly 30 years old and in poor condition, required careful monitoring. Thankfully, our partners at PSPCA took her to the hospital and later to their Danville location, where she was eventually placed in a loving home with plenty of pasture to enjoy her remaining years, leaving the ordeal of the city pavement behind.
Every Dog Deserves a Happy Ending
Sandy’s Story
Like many other dogs found in Philadelphia, it was clear upon arrival Sandy hadn’t had an easy life. Found lifeless on a street corner and bound around the neck with an electrical cord, our Animal Protection Officers rushed her back to the shelter for medical care.
Sandy was estimated to be around eight years old and was suffering from multiple ailments. The cord around her neck had been there so long it had rubbed the skin raw. She was also severely matted and suffering from eye and mouth issues which were causing her a great deal of pain. Upon arrival Sandy was mentally shut down as expected, however thankfully with some time, medicine, a good groom and chicken nuggets, she started to open up. Sandy was lucky to be placed in a staff office, where her office foster mom made she she was comfortable and felt safe.
Sandy was transferred to one of our amazing senior dog rescue partners and was later adopted by her foster. Thanks to the quick actions of our Animal Protection Officers, extensive care from our medical team and staff, and the love from the foster family she found though rescue, Sandy got the second chance every dog deserves!
How To Help
There are countless ways to volunteer to help animals at ACCT Philly, from driving an animal to rescue to volunteering to walk dogs at the shelter, joining the ACCT Philly Runners Club and going for runs with dogs who need the extra outing, making enrichment for shelter animals through the Foodies Club, helping with laundry so animals have comfy beds at night, the list of how to make a difference is endless, it just requires you!
Volunteer Foster
Did you know that you can help save a life by fostering, but don’t need to commit long term? While we always need fosters who can foster until the animal is adopted, we also need twothree week fosters for upcoming transports, overnight fosters for bottle babies, short term fosters to prevent other foster animals from coming back to the shelter when their foster goes out of town, or just to get a break from the shelter for a few days. If you’re not local, consider fostering for an ACCT Philly rescue partner so that they can take another dog or cat from us.
Donate
Your donation will help to fund the care, specialized medical treatments and adoption, foster and placement efforts that save lives. Donations can be made on our website, by check mailed to us at 111 W Hunting Park Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19140, through your donor advised fund, or through gifts of stock. Consider leaving a legacy of caring for Philadelphia’s vulnerable animals by including ACCT Philly in your will or estate plan.
Day Trips
Day trips are a great way to make a difference for a dog in need while enjoying a nice day out. You can volunteer to take a dog out on a hike, or maybe spend an afternoon relaxing at home – the choice is yours! The information and photos you provide from a day trip can be what influences an adopter or rescue to take that dog.
Share on Social Media
Do your friends and family know where to go if they lose their pet? Countless owners come to ACCT weeks after a pet goes missing due to not being aware of the shelter being the most important place to check. Encourage your community to get their pets microchipped and wear a collar with an ID tag. Share the lost pets who end up at ACCT on social media to help spread the word and find their owners. ACCT posts all pets that are lost or were found on our website, PetcoLoveLost.org and on the Lost and Found Facebook page.
To stay updated on our latest news, events, and adorable animal stories, follow us on our social media channels! You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Join our online community and be a part of our mission to help animals in need.
Help Desk
In addition to our Help Desk, there are many resources in Philadelphia dedicated to keeping people with their pets during times of hardship. But owners often find out too late. If you know someone who is struggling to keep their pet or needs a helping hand with their pet through a tough time, encourage them to check out the Help Desk where we will also share the other resources in the city that can help them.
Have questions? Want to get involved?
