Animal Shelter

Earlier this year, we invited animal welfare organizations to apply for one of three $10,000 Volunteer Appreciation Program grants to be awarded during National Volunteer Week—which is happening right now! We couldn’t believe the response we got from more than 140 groups eager to brag about their amazing volunteers. Our experts winnowed the impressive list down to a few finalists, and we asked our own volunteers to vote on the three winners.

In the end, the rockstar grantees were:

• Ark-Valley Humane Society (Buena Vista, CO)
• Mayport Cats (Jacksonville, FL)
• Foothills Humane Society (Tryon, NC)

Each group will receive a $10,000 grant in recognition of their volunteers’ amazing work for animals. Congratulations, guys!

If you’d like to volunteer, check out our Top 10 Ways to Help Your Local Shelter. If you already volunteer for animals, tell us about it in the comments, or tweet us @ASPCA using the National Volunteer Week hashtag, #NVW!

"People want their dog to be a friend, not afraid.

But sometimes, fear grips dogs so tightly they shake, cower, bite, growl or pee. It can be constant, painful and hard to overcome. Such dread can consume a dog when it's freed from a cage at a puppy mill or hoarder's home because that's the only life the dog has ever known.

Until now, it was up to animal shelters to ease the fears, knowing if they didn't, euthanasia was the likely alternative. But this week, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals opens its Behavioral Rehabilitation Center at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison, N.J.”

We have so much more news to share with you about this thrilling new facility—and how we hope to use it to offer a lifeline to animals across the country—and we’ll bet you’ve got questions. We can’t wait to tell you everything, so stay tuned to ASPCA.org for all the details.

In the meantime, read the entire Associated Press story.

Last year in Texas, a scared little white pup named Diamond arrived at the City of Abilene’s municipal shelter. She was dirty, painfully matted and very scared. No one knew it at the time, but she was also deaf.

If Diamond had arrived at the shelter a year earlier, she may never have found her happy ending. But the folks who work at the City of Abilene shelter are especially dedicated and strongly committed to saving animals’ lives. Naturally, they jumped at the chance to take part in the ASPCA’s Carroll Petrie Foundation Dog Rescue Project, unveiled in September.

Part of the ASPCA Animal Relocation Initiative, the Carroll Petrie Foundation Dog Rescue Project helps cash-strapped municipal shelters like Abilene’s relocate dogs to off-site adoption programs, rescues or private shelters by providing municipal shelters $50 per dog placed. That money can be spent on vet care for an animal, transportation of the pet, or on anything else that will help move the animal out of the shelter.

For Diamond, this program was a godsend. Abilene was able to use the Petrie subsidy to move her to The Pawed Squad rescue. After a desperately needed grooming, Diamond revealed herself to be an adorable little Bichon Frise! She also came out of her shell and showed she would make a wonderful companion.

Soon after rescuing Diamond, the Pawed Squad was able to place her in a loving home that cherishes her every day. Her deafness was never an issue for these awesome adopters.

Congratulations to Abilene, The Pawed Squad rescue and Diamond’s happy family. We’re so glad the Carroll Petrie Foundation Dog Rescue Project is changing lives like hers and thousands of others.

Want to help support our efforts to find homes for thousands of homeless pets like Diamond? Please consider becoming an ASPCA Guardian today.

This week, we’re beginning to wind down the Brooklyn emergency boarding facility we opened in November for Sandy victims’ pets and pets found in the aftermath. We’re trying as hard as ever to reunite the remaining animals with their families—and we need your help!

Since the boarding facility opened, the ASPCA and other local agencies have been working around the clock to track down the families of lost pets through grassroots outreach, flyers, advertising, public service announcements and the Animal Care & Control of NYC’s lost pets website.

To date, we’ve reunited more than 100 pets with their families, but nearly 140 displaced animals still remain at the emergency shelter. Of course, any unclaimed pets will receive the best possible placement when the facility closes, but we’d love for them to go home with their original families.

That’s why we need you to share the information below!

If you or someone you know is missing a pet post-Sandy, please tell them to come to the ASPCA emergency boarding facility (at 1508 Herkimer St. in Brooklyn) as soon as possible, or visit the lost Sandy pets site to view all lost pets residing at the facility. Pet parents who wish to reclaim their pets from the boarding facility should also call the Hurricane Sandy Pet Hotline at 347-573-1561..

Thank you!