GEORGETOWN, Del. - The Brandywine Valley SPCA is saving more cats and dogs in Louisiana by partnering with Tangipahoa Parish Animal Services, or "Tangi." Three BVSPCA staff members moved there for a year to help the shelter raise its save rate from 20 percent to 90 percent.
88 dogs were flown on a Wings of Rescue flight to the New Castle Airport on Sunday. This is the first of many bi-weekly flights of pets BVSPCA will receive through the "embed" partnership. Director of Operations Walt Fenstermacher says BVSPCA expects each flight to carry about 100 animals.
"The staff members that we send to Louisiana are not only preparing the animals for transport to come to Delaware and Pennsylvania, but they're also working with the local teams to implement lifesaving programs to implement intake intervention, trap, neuter, return," says Fenstermacher.
BVSPCA has already added kennels to a shelter Tangi already had so that it can be used as a transport hub to send animals to places with more potential adopters. Fenstermacher says there are not enough adopters in Louisiana and not enough adoptable pets to meet the demand BVSPCA sees in the northeast.
"Animals at the Brandywine Valley SPCA typically stay with us for less than a week," Fenstermacher says.
While there were no cats on the first flight from Louisiana, BVSPCA hopes to bring cats in on future flights. The long term goal of the partnership is for Tangi and surrounding shelters to keep saving lives on their own once the BVSPCA staff there returns home.
"We actually helped fund a spay neuter clinic in Louisiana for that shelter so that the revenue generated from spay and neuter can be used to continue the lifesaving programs," Fenstermacher says.
The Tangi pups that are now at BVSPCA's campuses have been spayed, neutered, vaccinated and micro-chipped. They'll be ready for adoption in Georgetown starting Tuesday.
Click here for more information about the partnership or to donate.