Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 3, 1995 TAG: 9507030110
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Last week was almost the fourth.
Tinker Creek finally stopped rising 10 feet short of the cinder-block building on Eastern Avenue. But, just to be safe, the 267 shelter animals spent Wednesday and Thursday nights in foster homes.
"Maybe some of them will stay in those homes," said SPCA Executive Director Al Alexander. Sure enough, a couple of people who took in animals called to say they'd adopt them.
Alexander accepts any opportunity to match an abandoned pet with a new owner. A week earlier, after having had to destroy more than 70 cats and kittens because of infection and overcrowding, he discounted adoption fees and found homes for 82 more.
And it's been more than a year now, Alexander said, since he had to "put down" a puppy simply because it had kennel cough or a cold or a pregnant dog just because she was pregnant.
Young and expectant animals are being farmed out to volunteer foster homes until they can be put into an adoption program.
Through May, the SPCA said, it had taken in 661 animals and found homes for 341 of them. The remainder were destroyed. That's almost 300 fewer deaths than were necessary during the same period last year.
To increase adoptions, SPCA leaders are trying to affiliate with the North Shore Animal League, a Long Island, N.Y., animal rescue group that has a waiting list of families wanting pets. In 1994, North Shore placed 33,395 animals, according to its literature.
North Shore, founded in 1944, operates a state-of-the-art adoption center complete with staff veterinarians. It runs on donations and money it raises through Publisher's Clearinghouse-type contests.
North Shore is accepting excess puppies from shelters in several states, including its affiliate Martinsville-Henry County SPCA. Before the Roanoke SPCA can get on the list of participants, its shelter must meet certain standards that include having isolation facilities and a system of air exchange that deters spread of infection among animals housed there.
That's one reason the local group is readying a video to launch a fund-raising campaign.
The SPCA's building, which dates to the early 1960s, can't be upgraded, and rebuilding on a site so prone to flooding doesn't make sense, said Frank VanBalen, businessman and SPCA president.
VanBalen said he has met with Roanoke and Roanoke County governments to discuss land each owns and hopes soon to decide on a site to buy. The SPCA intends to launch its campaign by fall and start building by spring, he said.
The group has $400,000 in a building fund, he said. A donor who wants to remain anonymous has promised another $200,000 if the SPCA can match it two for one with donations.
"I have absolutely no idea how much we need," VanBalen said. "We're trying to get our arms around our income and expenses."
The SPCA's records have been computerized, and the first accounting since that change will be made at a July 13 board meeting, he said.
North Shore Animal League is helping the local group come up with a design for a shelter, VanBalen said.
The Roanoke Valley SPCA has sent some puppies to New York for adoption through the Martinsville SPCA and its affiliation with North Shore.
Alvina Pitches, executive director in Martinsville, said she had the state veterinarian investigate the New York program before her group joined it.
"The animals do not go to research. They do not pay for animals. They don't charge for adoptions, but they heavily screen families," she said. They also spay or neuter all animals.
Pitches, who is co-president of the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies, said the connection to North Shore has helped her SPCA save more animals, but that it isn't an answer to a community's problem of overpopulation and abandonment of animals.
SPCAs "don't want to be a drop-off," she said.
North Shore has been politically active in getting its area to enforce animal control ordinances, rabies vaccination and licensing laws, Pitches said, and that needs to happen in every community.
She said her SPCA also is getting tougher with people who bring in animals.
When a litter of kittens is brought in, the Martinsville SPCA offers to help the owner get the mother cat spayed, an operation that involves removal of the ovaries. If the owner doesn't want the animal spayed, Pitches said, the owner is told the SPCA won't continue to take litters from the cat.
"We tell them the litters will have to go to the pound, where chances of survival are low," she said.
Getting the message to the public that allowing animals to reproduce at will is irresponsible is a mission that goes along with saving animals, said workers at the Roanoke Valley SPCA and other area groups committed to rescuing animals.
"We wouldn't have any problem if people would be more responsible and neuter and spay," said Pat Shaver, who has volunteered to help run a new animal adoption center in Botetourt County.
The League for Animal Protection has leased - for $10 a year - the former Botetourt County pound building on Virginia 681 north of Fincastle and is renovating it for a no-kill shelter. By "no-kill," the group means it will not accept an animal if it means having to destroy one at the shelter that might be less adoptable.
The league has seven dogs for adoption and is paying $6 per day per dog to house them at a Troutville veterinary clinic. Plus, Shaver said, "we have cats and kittens by the bushel."
The problem of cat overpopulation is so severe that it has spawned its own rescue group, the Roanoke Valley Animal Foundation. Its members are establishing an adoption center where prospective owners can view available animals, said Trish Wright, president.
In addition to the need for adoption, all of the local animal groups say they could use more help within their organizations.
After it opens its shelter in a few weeks, the League for Animal Protection will need volunteers to clean cages and exercise and feed the animals at 8:30 each morning and 4 in the afternoon.
"We would like to hear from people willing to volunteer just one day a week," Pat Shaver said.
The SPCA runs a volunteer training session the second Saturday of each month and says it always needs people for a variety of activities, including its program of taking animals on visits to nursing homes.
The SPCA also hopes to increase its list of foster homes. It now has several pregnant cats and at least two dogs with puppies staying with local families.
ROANOKE VALLEY GROUPS THAT HELP ANIMALS
Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Organized in 1953. Operates stray-animal pounds for Roanoke and Roanoke, Craig and Botetourt counties. Tries to find homes for pound animals not claimed by owners and for animals brought in by individuals. For information about membership, to offer donations or to register as a foster home for pregnant or young animals, contact shelter staff at 1313 Eastern Ave. N.E., 344-4840.
League for Animal Protection
Founded in 1993 to rescue injured, abandoned and abused animals; now renovating shelter in Botetourt County to use as adoption facility. Gets money from donations, membership dues and fund-raising drives. Contact: Pat Shaver, 992-3586, or Judy Lorish, 992-6309.
Roanoke Valley Animal Foundation Inc.
Founded in 1992; mainly rescues cats and requires people adopting an animal to sign a contract that the animal will be neutered. A newsletter has photos of animals available for adoption. Contact: Trish Wright, 345-4408.
Roanoke Valley Regional Humane Society
Just received nonprofit status; intends to seek grants for free spay-and-neuter clinic; operates with donations and membership dues. 343-5529.
Salem Animal Shelter
Operated by Salem at 1301 Indiana St.; houses strays from that community. It also has an adoption program for unclaimed animals and occasionally needs temporary foster homes for pregnant animals or very young ones.
Keywords:
SPCA
by CNB