The Pittsylvania Pet Center would like to clear up some misinformation that has been floating around out there. Yes, we take in stray cats. No, we don’t take in healthy feral or wild adult cats; we instead offer free spay/neuter services and a free rabies vaccine. We do accept mothers (both expecting and nursing), as well as unhealthy or injured cats of all types. If you have a healthy cat suddenly show up on your property, we might advise you to leave it alone and allow it to find its way home. This is because 66% of lost cats will go home if left alone, but only about 2% will find their way home if they are brought into a shelter. If it is unhealthy or injured, you should certainly bring it to the Pet Center so we can nurse it back to health.
Why do we promote Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR)? The old ways of catch and kill are not working. There are still too many cats in the area living around food sources, and it is time we look at a different way of controlling the population. Catching and killing the cats just creates a vacuum where the cats left behind breed at a higher rate, and you end up with more cats than when you started. Fixing them and returning them to the environment where they are being monitored and cared for will reduce the population over time, and lead to less of a nuisance in the area.
Lastly, we do accept owned animals. We do ask owners to wait, if possible, when our shelter is full. Owners who are unable to hold off on surrendering, as well as stray pets, are always a priority. When an owner can wait, they are truly giving the gift of life to a pet in need. They are our heroes who show us and the pets of Pittsylvania that they care deeply enough to be a part of the solution; waiting to surrender means that the pets are important to them. We do ask a nominal fee for owner surrenders, but we have only taken in $100 so far, so you can see that we don’t always require it. We ask for this fee to help offset the costs of caring for their pets and rehoming them. Our costs are substantial, and we hope we can continue to find ways of raising money and bringing in revenue. Otherwise, come July 1st, we will have difficult decisions to make concerning the affordability of continuing to operate this facility.
The PPC takes in old, young, unweaned, pregnant, sick, and injured pets of all types. We do not perform owner requested euthanasia services. We will, however, accept these pets as an owner surrender and have one of the vets who are assisting us perform the service. Whether you use the term “open admissions” or not, it really doesn’t matter. If you proudly label your shelter as open admissions, but are euthanizing the majority of the pets, it’s hard for us to understand how your shelter is truly helping pets in need.
We believe in helping owners with their problems, but we believe that no pet should be euthanized simply because there’s no room in the shelter, or because they don’t have a home. This means more and more owners are going to have to be part of the solution, and we believe most of them will. We don’t understand why asking owners to wait is made out to be such a bad thing by the anti-no-kill community. Maybe it’s because they don’t trust people, or their fear is so strong that they can’t imagine believing people will help and wait to surrender. Instead of trusting the good in people, they are focused on the stories of horrible outcomes they’ve heard over the years.
No shelter should be a dumping ground or enable the community to continue allowing pets to be needlessly euthanized. The shelter should never be a place where pets go to die; the community must be a part of the solution and help us help the pets in need. The PPC is a place where pets live and find wonderful homes; it is a place that this community is proud of. We think our intake policies are working to save lives, (98% of them), and how can that be wrong?
If you would like to learn more about TNR or If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Pet Center directly, ask for Catrina at 434-433-2715. We are human and we make mistakes so if something doesn't sound right, call us. We want to help and knowing when we have fallen down helps us to do better.
If you would like to learn more about TNR or If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Pet Center directly, ask for Catrina at 434-433-2715. We are human and we make mistakes so if something doesn't sound right, call us. We want to help and knowing when we have fallen down helps us to do better.
I think that people who are complaining do not truly understand the massive job involved. They dont see the numbers, hundreds and hundreds of animals coming in. The problem is really the community that keeps breeding, abusing, abandoning and dumping their animals expecting someone else to take care of them or not caring whether they are cared for or not.
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