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Creature COMFORTS More homeless pets will get help through SPCA's planned Humane Care Center
More homeless pets will get help through the Greater Fredericksburg Area SPCA's planned new Humane Care Center. By Eve Carr
Date published: 4/29/2006
ANCELOT, A DOMESTIC shorthair cat, had been hit by a car. His eye was injured, and his front leg was broken in five places. The owner could not afford medical care for Lancelot, so he turned him over to the Greater Fredericksburg Area SPCA, which saw that Lancelot received the needed medical attention. While Lancelot walks with a limp, he is, according to the SPCA staff, a "happy and content boy."
Lulu, an incredibly thin yet affectionate hound mix, was found abandoned near the homeless shelter. Today, she no longer has to hunt for handouts. Lulu is an integral part of a family who loves and cares for her every need.
These are just two of the countless success stories made possible by the SPCA. Despite limited funds and cramped facilities, this award-winning organization has, since 1943, given thousands of loving cats and dogs another chance to live.
Now located at 1523 Olde William St., it is the only shelter for the city of Fredericksburg. It also reaches out to county governments to give their homeless animals a chance to live beyond the Virginia state five-day limit without a collar and 10-day limit with a collar, because this is also the only "no-kill" shelter in the area.
Soon, the SPCA will be able to help three times as many animals, with plans under way for a new, state-of-the-art Humane Care Center at Four-Mile Fork in Spotsylvania County. A groundbreaking, which is open to the public, will be held next Saturday at 10 a.m. for the $2 million facility. The SPCA hopes to open the 14,000-square-foot center within two years.
A no-kill policy
The SPCA was well ahead of its time in 2000, when it began offering medical care to injured animals and adopted a "no-kill" policy, one of only 250 such facilities in the United States.
"Say yes to no-kill," says SPCA Executive Director Debra L. Joseph. "Animals stay with us until they are adopted and are not euthanized due to lack of space." She says the SPCA looked at the trends and felt this was the more humane approach to take. "Because we are independently operated, we were able to go in that direction," she says.
In contrast, the majority of shelters, whose budgets must pay the salaries and benefits of animal control officers, merely house an animal for a set number of days and then euthanize it. Unfortunately, this isn't always long enough to give working families the needed time to find their beloved pets--or to allow many homeless pets to be adopted.
During this period, animals at other shelters may suffer needlessly because they do not receive medical attention. At many shelters, if a dog has a broken leg when it enters, it stays that way until it is retrieved, adopted or euthanized.
Date published: 4/29/2006
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