Archive: Around Town

Thursday was a day of celebration at the Tompkins County Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TCSPCA) when local PetsMart store manager Debbie Houck arrived to present a check for $20,000 to develop and support the shelter's foster program.  Some of the fosterers were on hand to see their program supported.

The program finds foster homes for animals, especially puppies and kittens who are too young to be adopted.  Foster homes provide a place for sick or injured animals to get well, and for difficult animals to become socialized to make them more adoptable.  "Some animals don't have problems, but they can't tolerate being in a shelter environment," says Kerry Barnes, the Development Director for TCSPCA.  They would be unadoptable if they were here and they were scared, but when people see them in a home and see how they really are going to be in their home they find their own families that way."

Helping local shelters is part of doing business for PetsMart.  "In 1994 they developed a program called PetsMart Charities to help local organizations," says Houck, "to help disaster relief efforts and things like that.  TCSPCA applied for a grant through the program and received it for the fostering program.  Since we began we've donated $39 million and saved over 2 million homeless pets."

The organization partners with 3,400 animal shelters across North America.  "Our local store has only been here since October, so it's really exciting," says Houck.  "We work a lot with TCSPCA and they have cats in our building at all times that are adoptable."

Foster homes are provided by volunteers like Lansing's Donna Scott (see our story from December), who fosters cats, or Bob Sherwood, who specializes in dogs with problems.  "The help here is fantastic," says Mary Walker, who fosters cats.  "I was so reassured by Sandy.  Whenever there's a problem I can call.  I can come down at any time.  They give you the medicine and they help you through it."

Houck presented the check to TCSPCA Executive Director Jeff Lydon in the Dorothy & Roy Park Pet Adoption Center Thursday afternoon.  "The foster program not only vastly increases the number of animals a shelter can handle and place, but it directly involves the community members in saving lives," says Barnes.  With this grant it will be able to save more lives still.

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