SPCA of Wake County’s lives-saved numbers are the highest ever. SPCA Wake’s goal at the start of 2019 was to increase their intake (pets rescued or surrendered to them) and adoption numbers. Total adoptions last year were 4,163, which included cats, dogs, small animals, and the “working cats” program. That is an increase of 545 adoptions (15%) over the 2018 total of 3,618 adoptions.
Said Beth Schulman, Communications Coordinator at SPCA of Wake County:
“We are very excited about this as 2019 is the first year we passed 4,000 adoptions!”
Intakes of animals for evaluation, vet care, and eventual adoption, are limited by three broad factors:
- space to house the animals
- staff availability to care for them
- funds to provide for their needs
SPCA Wake Staff members have been working tirelessly to develop ways to save more pets while working with these constraints. Said Schulman:
“One thing we did was to make changes to shorten our length of stay. When pets are adopted more quickly, there are more open spaces to rescue more pets.
“We’ve also increased our foster program. If a pet goes to a foster home, space in our building or the manpower of our current staff aren’t affected, so a larger foster program also leads to more lives saved.”
The nonprofit also increased its fundraising efforts, to ensure continuation of day-to-day feeding, veterinary care, staffing, and more intakes, and veterinary care for incoming senior cats and dogs. Schulman added:
“SPCA Wake isn’t just taking in more pets. We’re taking in more pets with medical needs. We’re taking in more senior pets and more pets that may be hard to place. Those pets come with additional costs, so we’ve also increased our fundraising efforts to help us provide for these pets and their needs.”
Planning to Adopt A Pet in 2020? SPCA Wake’s adoption center is located at 200 Petfinder Lane, Raleigh, NC. Adoption information may be found at spcawake.org/adopt, and it is best to review this information before arranging a visit to meet animals face-to-face. Adoption Center hours are listed on the SPCA Wake Contact page.
If you’re not quite ready to choose a new pet to be a part of your family, what about being a pet Foster family? Take in an animal to make room for another at the shelter.
If not adopting, consider supporting SPCA Wake’s 2020 work in other ways including donations.
Or become a volunteer. Volunteers perform various tasks, including opportunities to give attention to each animal while it waits for adoption. You, and the animals, can benefit from your time-donation.
Thank you to Beth Schulman, SPCA of Wake County, for providing details. KW
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Ed. Note: SPCA Wake is hiring, looking for animal lovers to join their team! See positions at spcawake.org/employment.
