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Aug 27, 2023

At PSPCA shelter in Lancaster, fewer obstacles to adopting pet than surrendering one [Lancaster Watchdog]

The Lancaster SPCA housed 11 of the at least 170 dogs found at a Monroe County home on Friday, July 14, 2023. In mid-July, the Pennsylvania SPCA’s law enforcement team removed more than 170 dogs from

The Lancaster SPCA housed 11 of the at least 170 dogs found at a Monroe County home on Friday, July 14, 2023.

In mid-July, the Pennsylvania SPCA’s law enforcement team removed more than 170 dogs from a Monroe County home, sending them to shelters in its network, including one in Lancaster.

The South Prince Street shelter took in 11 dogs from that rescue, and the influx pushed the shelter to 41 dogs — beyond capacity, which site director Kisha Reinmiller said is 36 dogs and nine cats.

Because most of the rescued dogs needed medical care and the center doesn’t have a 24-hour medical facility, it received mostly puppies, which tend to be in higher demand. Almost within a week, the 11 dogs were adopted, then several more of the Monroe County dogs were brought in and quickly placed.

Reinmiller said stretching the shelter to capacity is nothing new. Almost every other month, a large group of animals comes to the shelter all at once, either from Lancaster County or a neighboring area. When there’s an overflow of dogs, the center doubles-up on the number of dogs in a kennel, co-housing them with dogs they get along with.

Despite the shelter’s ability to accommodate these animals, a person who wants to surrender an animal can’t just walk in off the street and hand it over, and that causes some consternation, especially among people looking to relocate cats.

“We get people that call every day frustrated because they don’t know what to do about the problem cats in their area,” Reinmiller said. “And a lot of times they think that they can just catch them and bring them into the shelter.”

But they can’t. And it’s not just because the building wasn’t built to hold a lot of cats. (They need to be housed in a separate room from the dogs.)

The shelter’s limited resources and contractual obligations to local municipalities prevent it from taking in animals without a thorough vetting and, likely, a long wait.

Pennsylvania SPCA’s Lancaster branch is not an open-admission shelter. Surrendering an animal, be it a dog or cat, requires making an appointment, which involves having the animal’s behavior evaluated and then usually taking a spot on a wait list.

Anyone with an urgent need to surrender an animal is given recommendations for other shelters to try.

In August 2017, when the Lancaster County SPCA became the Lancaster branch of the Pennsylvania SPCA, the transition was accompanied by a big change: no more euthanizing animals. Now, with a no-kill policy in place, space in the kennels is at a premium.

Financial considerations also limit what the shelter can do.

A common misconception about the Pennsylvania SPCA, Reinmiller said, is that it is funded by the state; it is not. The Philadelphia-based network of shelters, with locations in Phoenixville, Danville and Lancaster, operates almost entirely on donations.

“There’s just the assumption that because we’re the Pennsylvania SPCA, we have endless funds, but we don’t,” she said. “We operate just like any other small organization.”

Only 10 employees, including the director and a veterinarian, operate the Lancaster shelter, which is open seven days a week. When an animal is taken in, the center does an individual assessment and provides medical care, which includes spaying and neutering, a requirement of the Pennsylvania Dog Law.

To generate extra funds, the shelter contracts with municipalities to take their strays, which further limits space for walk-ins.

“We do the best we can with what we’re given,” Reinmiller said. “It is honestly impressive the scale of things that we’re able to orchestrate just based off donations.”

Checks show up in the mail in a range of amounts, from $20 to $1,000, Reinmiller said. Some people give regular monthly donations, and some companies donate specific items. Chewy, a Florida-based pet products retailer, donates food for the dogs and cats, as well as cat litter for all the sites.

So, the nonprofit shelter does what it can with what it gets.

More Lancaster Watchdog:

In the end, adopting an animal from the shelter may be easier than surrendering one. It costs a bit more to adopt — $300 for a dog ($450 for puppies) and $85 for a cat ($150 for kittens), whereas the surrender fee is $50 — but the process can happen more quickly.

Potential adopters can fill out an application online or in person, and they can usually meet and adopt an animal the same day, provided it has been spayed or neutered.

To find out more about adopting and surrendering animals at the Lancaster SPCA, visit pspca.org/lancaster, email [email protected] or call 717-917-6979.

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The PSPCA and other organizations provide low-cost spay/neuter programs for dogs and cats. For cats, the goal is often to return the animal to where it was found, referred to as “Trap, Neuter, Return” service.

Three programs to try:

PSPCA Lancaster: pspca.org/lancaster, or 717-917-6979.

Helping Hands for Animals: helpinghandsforanimals.org, or 717-687-7297.

Pet Pantry of Lancaster: petpantrylc.org/fix, or 717-983-8878.

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