Philly Animals Need in Need of Help

This came up on my Facebook feed this week.

Philadoptables is a fantastic non-profit that provides supportive services and funds to Philadelphia’s Animal Care & Control Team (ACCT), which is basically the city pound for cats and dogs.

ACCT Philly is the only open shelter in Philadelphia, which means anyone can drop off their dog or cat at any time 24/7/365. Unfortunately, upwards of 22,000 dogs and cats enter the shelter each year. That’s about 60/day.

While ACCT has been doing a great job of improving their save rates (animals that leave the shelter alive), which are over 80%, there are times when the shelter is at max capacity and that is problematic. When the shelter is at max capacity, animals must be euthanized, killed, simply due to space so that kennels are available to additional strays/surrenders.

As noted above, the shelter is at max capacity this week. Healthy, adoptable dogs and cats will be euthanized due to over-crowding. But, they don’t have to be. You, me, all of us can help.

How? I’m glad you asked.

If you have space, FOSTER a dog or cat in your home. You save that animals life and open a space to save another life.

ADOPT. Don’t buy a dog/cat from a breeder. Yes, it’s true that a portion of ACCT dogs are terrier mixes (pitbulls and others) and that doesn’t work for everyone, but that’s not all of them. There are plenty of retriever, collie, and other mixes. ACCT also partners with dozens and dozens of local shelters, who pull animals out of ACCT. If you adopt from a shelter you’ll most likely free up space at that shelter so they will be able to pull another dog/cat from ACCT and SAVE ANOTHER LIFE.

SPREAD THE WORD. Tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers that Philadelphia has an on-going animal crisis and we can all help out.

VOLUNTEER. Spend time at the shelter interacting with the dogs and cats to help them become better socialized and more adoptable.

DONATE.  ACCT needs funding. Skip a latte, beer, or soda and donate the $1, $3, $5 to ACCT. We go crazy for Dollar Dog Night at a Phillies game. How about if you go to those games and spend $5 on dogs you donate $5 to dogs via here?

We are better than having to kill dogs/cats due to space, but it’s an unfortunate reality due to space limitations and ACCT being woefully underfunded. Get involved. Save a life. There ain’t nothing better.

Dogs and cats need saving. It’s not some insurmountable endeavor. It simply takes us all being cognizant of the problem and doing something, anything, in our own immediate world.

This doesn’t end this week if the shelter opens space. This is ongoing. I could post this once a month, at least. But, if the majority of us got involved I wouldn’t have to.