Community Outreach Program
Adirondack Save-A-Stray has been helping individuals, for years, in the community with low cost Veterinary services such as flea control, vaccines, emergency medical care, and more. We have been doing this on an as-needed basis quietly. However, this year, we have decided to make this program part of our everyday curriculum and call it “Adirondack Save-A-Stray Outreach”. We have set aside some funds, but we had no idea, after the past couple of weeks, how quickly these funds would be used up.
We have discovered that there is a need for a program like this in our community. Many times, if there’s a medical emergency for a beloved pet, there is no choice but to use an Emergency Clinic. If you do not have the funds when you walk in that door they will, depending on the severity of the problem, suggest you put your animal to sleep. Adirondack Save-A-Stray considers this murder. If an animal could be saved and go on to live a happy life, it would be almost sinful to kill that animal just because slim monetary resources.
Here are a few examples of what our outreach program has accomplished:
• A family called us crying because she went to her Vet that told her that the dog’s foot was broken and it would cost $3,000 to fix. We sent her to our Vet for a second opinion and it turned out that it was actually a piece of metal that went through the dog’s paw. Ouch! We were able to pay for the X-Rays, surgery to remove the metal object and the antibiotics for the follow up care. This dog would have lost it’s life due to infection because she did not have the money for the Vet care.
• A woman called who had taken in 30 cats over the years. She had them spayed and neutered but at this point in her life she ran out of funds and needed help. She now faced a medical condition herself. We told her to come into the shelter and pick up some flea control. When she got here we were shocked. She had flea bites on every part of her body and we knew we had to help. ASAS gave her over 30 doses of flea medication for her dogs and cats and we are going to help her with deworming medication and more. In this case, we helped both a human being and her beloved pets, which was the right and only thing to do.
• There was also a lady that got evicted and had nowhere to go with her two cats. We paid for a hotel room for her and her daughter. We were also able to get the cats to safety.
• We also helped another family that were going to have to put their cat to sleep because of a Urinary Tract Infection. We paid for the surgery and the antibiotics and the cat is thriving to this day!
• And the stories continue!!!!
We are once again turning to you – our supporters – to keep our Outreach Program established. We do this for the animals!!! We need you to help us help them! Lending a helping hand and giving back to the community is what Adirondack Save-A-Stray wants to continue to do with your help and donations.
We hate to continue to beg, but in order to keep this very important outreach program going, we need to continue to ask for your help and support. There is no other program like this in the area. This outreach program will also help keep animals in their homes rather then surrendered to a shelter. We are thanking you in advance for making tails wag and hearts purr!