I get the importance of volunteering, fostering and adopting shelter animals. But how else can I help save the lives of our city’s 34,000 shelter animals each year?
There are as many ways to help us do our work, as there are talents that you have. Here are just a few:
- Promoting adoptable animals looking for homes by sharing our outreach materials with friends, neighbors, co-workers, and civic associations.
- Becoming a shelter volunteer, and coming to the shelter and walking and spending some time with the animals.
- Designing flyers, informational and educational materials.
- Raising money, running fundraising events, and putting us in touch with people, organizations and communities who might also be interested in holding such events.
- Manning an information table at outreach events.
- Making presentations to your local neighborhood groups, schools, or community partners on behalf of Philadoptables, with our excellent materials.
- Identifying your business as a friend of the shelter animals, and letting people know they can drop off needed items, and we will help get them to the shelter.
- Donating items that are always needed at the shelter, or organizing a “supply drive” for items on our wish list, like bones, blankets, treats, toys and lots of other things!
Why should people donate to Philadoptables?
- Because besides volunteering, adopting or fostering, it’s the single most effective way to make a difference in the lives of the animals of the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter, by supporting our work in helping the animals directly, and by spreading the word throughout our city of this great gem in our midst.
- Because we are all volunteer, and your money will go directly to support the animals’ care and hopefully, adoption.
- Because the City’s budget is patently insufficient, and the need is so great, that your money really is needed to help alleviate the suffering of these animals, and to help save their lives. It’s just the way it is.
- Because we have no other affiliations other than to the animals at the shelter. Because we are composed of and surrounded by individuals who volunteer at the shelter, who know and care about the animals, and understand what their needs are on a day to day, week to week, and year to year basis.
- Because by helping more animals get adopted, you are helping not only to save their lives, but also to make someone in the city who will adopt a shelter animal very happy, and help improve their quality of life, too!
- Because by helping the animals, it will make you feel good, and when you feel good, the people around you will feel good, the people around them will feel good, and the world will transform!
- Because for as many years as anyone can remember, Philadelphia’s Animal Control shelter has been Philadelphia’s best and worst kept secret around, and always at the expense of the lives of the animals; and because it is our pledge to see that it remains a secret no longer.
- Because these are just a few of the many, many reasons why you should donate to Philadoptables!!
Philadoptables has no paid officers or staff; we are comprised entirely by volunteers who donate their time, skills, and compassion; we work out of our homes and do not have rented office space, keeping overhead costs to an absolute minimum. Aside from the nominal funds needed to produce our website, events, and marketing materials (most of which are donated), all donations to Philadoptables directly support the animals at the Philadelphia animal control shelter, the region’s largest open-admission, high-volume public shelter.
Philadoptables is the only charitable organization whose mission and funds are dedicated solely to the animals that arrive at the Philadelphia City Animal Shelter.
Is the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter the same as the Pennsylvania SPCA?
No – not at all – they are two different facilities and organizations, one owned by the City, one a private, charitable organization, but they have a close working relationship with each other.
The Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter, owned by the City of Philadelphia to temporarily house stray and “at large” animals, is located on 111 W. Hunting Park Avenue. The building itself is an old converted warehouse, only later retrofitted to house live animals, and far too small for the number of animals it receives each day. In reality, our city budget simply does not provide for the space, the staffing, the medical services, and other basic needs that our shelter animals require, and in truth, a new facility is needed. Indeed, most people do not even know that we have a taxpayer funded, city animal shelter! We at Philadoptables believe this is a big problem, and with the help of our many, many friends across the region, we aim to solve it.
The Pennsylvania SPCA, is a state-wide non-profit charitable organization with locations throughout Pennsylvania, whose mission is to prevent animal cruelty and promote respect for animal welfare by rescuing animals from abuse and neglect, providing lifesaving care and treatment, and reducing pet-overpopulation through low-cost spay-and-neuter clinics and public awareness initiatives. Ironically, the PSPCA’s Philadelphia branch, and state-wide headquarters, is only down the road from the city shelter, on Erie Avenue. Whereas the PSPCA has locations throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is largely donor funded, the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelteris funded by a comparatively meager City budget. And unlike the PSPCA, which is supported by its many members and donors, you can not make a donation directly to the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter!
Beyond their different locations and budgets however, the two shelters do different things. The Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter is a high volume, taxpayer funded “open admission” shelter, receives many, many more cats and dogs each year than the PSPCA’s Philadelphia branch, and by law can never turn away an animal. The PSPCA, on the other hand, does not accept stray or surrendered animals – they accept what are known as “cruelty case” animals – animals that have been abused, in other words. PSPCA stands for Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. So if you are a Philadelphia resident, and you try to turn an animal in to the PSPCA (as many people try to do every day), they will direct you to the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter.
But the two shelter are related in one very important way: through a contract it has with the City, the PSPCA manages, or operates the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter for the City, and thus is responsible for hiring staff, caring for the animals, promoting adoptions, setting policies, working with the public and the volunteers, and doing all the things necessary to faithfully execute the Animal Control laws. So while the signage in front of the City Shelter says “Animal Care and Control, Powered by the PSPCA,” in fact this is our taxpayer funded, Philadelphia municipal animals shelter. And if the PSPCA ever stops managing the shelter, that brand name will go with it. And our shelter will once again lapse into anonymity, a building without a name.
Is it confusing to most people? Yes. Are we working to remove that confusion? Yes! And why is there so much confusion about this? Well, because most people don’t even know they have a city shelter, for one; no one’s heard of the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter. The PSPCA, on the other hand, is a household name, so people assume they accept stray and surrendered animals! We at Philadoptables believe that people across our region would benefit by understanding that they have a taxpayer funded, city animal shelter – the animal control shelter currently on Hunting Park Avenue – funded solely by taxpayer dollars – and that if we don’t all join together to care for it, no one will! In short, we at Philadoptables believe it’s vitally important that all people understand their relationship to this city institution, regardless of who manages the shelter at any given time.
Will Philadoptables still exist if the Animal Control contract changes?
Absolutely; as long as the animals of the shelter need an independent voice, regardless of who manages the shelter, we will be there to help. We are an independent non-profit, and our only allegiance is to the animals of the shelter, regardless of who happens to be managing it at the time. We believe that it is our responsibility to provide whatever support we can offer to whoever is managing the shelter, because we understand how difficult that is, given the limited resources there are to work with. At the same time, it is also our responsibility to see that the shelter operations are conducted openly and honestly, to insist on openness and transparency, and to assume that the public is intelligent and deserves to know what the deficiencies are, and how they can be solved. And it is in this spirit that we try to bring an intelligent and caring approach to every one of our mission areas.
My Favorite Shelter is a “No Kill” Shelter. So why should I help the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter, which obviously isn’t?
Most, though not all, “No-Kill” shelters shelters can only be that way because they can control the number of cats and dogs coming in. When they are full – they simply don’t take in any more animals until the next one is adopted! This is a wonderful thing. However, our Philly Shelter – being a municipal shelter – is required by law to accept every animal that is brought to its doors. And there simply are too many animals pouring in each day, too little space to hold them, and too few people stepping up up to adopt them. The only way we’re going to ever make Philly’s shelter a true “No Kill” shelter is when enough animals are properly spayed and neutered, when enough people from the region stop buying their animals from retail stores and puppy mills, and the City makes available a large enough space for its shelter to house its animal residents while they wait for their forever homes to come and adopt them. It’s that complex, and that simple.
Can I adopt an animal through Philadoptables?
No, you can only adopt through the shelter itself. We are an independent organization, not affiliated with the City of Philadelphia or the Pennsylvania SPCA, founded to help improve the shelter animals’ chances of survival, and the quality of their lives while they are in the shelter through our core mission. The listing for animals currently available through the Philadelphia City Animal Shelter is available here.
