Thank you all for your calls of concern and postings on our Facebook and Twitter sites.
All of our locations made it through the storm ok, with only minimal damage. There was some power loss, but that was restored within 36 hours. We were so very fortunate and we are counting our blessings as we watch so much devastation across the region.
To prepare for the storm, we moved all our animals inside (dogs, horses, pigs, feral cats), barracaded at-risk windows, moved the horses to a safe indoor barn (thank you Silent Farm) and battened down our hatches.
We thank our staff – with all our hearts – for staying overnight on location, for getting to work, for showing how much you all care about our animals.
But just because we were not seriously impacted does not mean that we can rest easy. Animals all over the East Coast are in trouble and in need. (Thank you to all the rescue workers who are ALSO helping animals!)
Since Hurricane Sandy, animals have only flowed to New York City Animal Care & Control (AC&C) in one direction: in. Their Staten Island shelter was evacuated and the animals transferred to the already full Brooklyn and Manhattan locations. With many staff unable to make it to work, they closed to the public for several days, and their computer and phone systems remain down. Still animals continued to come in. Their Field Services department brought in a steady stream of animals rescued from bad situations in the storm and animals coming in from people who had no place to take them and nowhere to go.
AC&C had suspended their daily euthanasia during the crisis but once their computer systems come back the nightly euthanasia list will be reinstated and the two remaining shelters are full to bursting. AC&C staff reached out to us today on their personal cell phones to ask us if we could take in as many animals as possible.
This is a difficult time for us. Donations are down and we are preparing for the winter, when heating our large Westchester facility can cost as much as $10,000 per month and utility costs at our Middletown location as much as $6,500 a month. This is a scary time to be taking on MORE for either of our locations. But we simply cannot turn down a request for assistance in times so desperate and extraordinary.
Today we will take in approximately 30-40 cats and kittens from AC&C including two pregnant moms, and we are exploring the possibility of taking more animals in the days to come. We need your help. We need kitten food and baby food (pureed meats without onion or garlic), but most of all we need your donations – we are sure to have many medical needs and necessary treatments, and we will need additional staff hours to care for the youngest and most vulnerable kittens. We want to help, and we want to expand our help – but we need you. Please consider joining us and helping us pull as many as we can to safety.
Times are desperate and we all need to lean on each other right now.
We hope that all of you are ok, and if there is anything we can do to help YOU or YOUR animals – please reach out to us!
Additionally, we have TWO generators at Pets Alive that we do not need since our power has been restored. If you know of ANY rescue or shelter that is still without power, please let us know and we will do our best to get a generator to them, to borrow until their power comes back up.
Thank you all for your support.
ANYTHING you can donate at this time would be helpful to us and to so many animals in need.
Our mission is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education. Please consider making a donation to help us.
