NORWICH – The Chenango County SPCA has worked hard and is very proud to be designated as a no-kill shelter.
That means, except for a few exceptions, the shelter does not euthanize animals due to space issues or basic illness. It takes more time and expense to accomplish the designation, but the current volunteer board has made the investments to make animal welfare a top priority.
There are 14 volunteers serving on the board of directors, many of them are community members and local professionals, including Board President James Dunne II, Vice President Heather Bartle-Ferrarese, Secretary Peggy Finnegan and Treasurer Bette Osborne.
A decade ago, when the Chenango County SPCA was under different leadership and did not have the no-kill designation, it operated as most standard shelters do.
Figures show more animals were being killed than were being adopted.
About two thirds of the animals brought to the shelter were being euthanized and only roughly a quarter of the animals were being adopted out.
Contrasted with today, currently the shelter finds homes for about two thirds of the animal brought in and on average only euthanizes about one in 15 animals.
“I want to emphasis that we are a no-kill shelter. That is the big deal stuff. You could see by the numbers that ten years ago we were euthanizing two-thirds of what we got in and only adopting out a quarter of the animals. Today we’ve flipped it,” said Chenango SPCA Executive Director Annette Clarke
In 2020 SPCA was able to euthanize less than five percent of the animals brought to the shelter.
Before one can appreciate the achievement of earning a no-kill designation, it’s important to recognize the standard operations and the challenges many shelters routinely face.
Clarke said sharing the information was not meant as a criticism of past operations. Understanding how the local shelter operated in the past was not abnormal and was the industry’s standard for most shelters.
However, a lack of that understanding has caused a number of people to criticize the shelter. Some still express concerns and staff continue to explain and educate people on the past realities and the current no-kill status.

A second chance

Clarke has been the executive director of the Chenango SPCA for 10 years. When she first joined the organization, she often fielded concerns from local citizens over past interactions.
“There was a lot of name calling and a lot of bad feelings. And I could understand why because it did seem like that. The old shelter philosophy was if you had a cat room that had 20 cats in it and one of them started sneezing, it meant that the cat was sick and they would just euthanize all of the animals in the room rather than try to take care of them or medicate them,” said Clarke. “I don’t want to say anything against them, because that’s what shelters always did. That was the way shelters operated.”
When Clarke took over, she reached out to a licensed veterinary technician with two decades of experience, Manager Kathy Wyder. The two had the expertise and shared a common goal of wanting to transform the organization into a no-kill shelter.
“We sat down and talked about what it would take to become a no-kill shelter. And her response was we need money to be able to send the animals to vets, so if they’re sick, we can treat them. She knew how to treat them, so as long as we can get a vet to prescribe the medication, she could administer it. So that’s what we did, we started raising money for what we call our second chance, to give them a chance to get better.”
At certain times of the year, spring and fall, animals, especially cats, often contract upper respiratory infections which can be amplified by being in a shelter with many animals in a confined area. These seasons were a serious challenge in trying to improve the shelter and avoid expense.
Respiratory illness is especially a concern because they are easily transmitted. In order to become a no-kill shelter Clarke realized they had to be proactive.
Avoiding an outbreak is much cheaper than treating one. Attempting to pay for treatment for a number of sick animals is costly and it increases their stress.
So, Clarke and Wyder worked together to review effective and cost-efficient options.
“We did some research and started giving the cats Lysine twice a year, which is an immune booster. It boosts their immune system and we don’t have that problem anymore. We get very few that come down with upper respiratory infections now, and when they do, they go to the vet and then we can treat them with antibiotics,” said Clarke.
Another step in creating a no-kill shelter also means setting standards for the animals the Chenango SPCA will accept. It will not take in very ill or old animals, and if they think an animal is beyond their care and in danger of needing to be euthanized, they tell those people bringing in the animals up front.
In decades past the shelter was an open admission shelter and accepted all animals anyone brought to them.
“We used to take all animals regardless of their health or anything else,” said Clarke.
Being an open shelter in the past sometimes led to abuse with some dropping off very ill or neglected animals, or older ones with serious medical issues that the owners could not afford to take care of. Many of those animals are expensive to house and difficult to adopt.
The largest challenges facing a no-kill shelter is balancing taking in too many of those challenging animals, because then all the other animals under their care can suffer the consequences. Still the shelter tries to take in as many as it can, but if an animal is deemed too sick, old or dangerous, it is classified as unadoptable and not accepted.
“The biggest problem with being a no-kill shelter is that you cannot euthanize because you have too many animals and that’s something that people grapple with. So most no-kill shelters pick and choose who they take in. The animal has to be adoptable,” explained Clarke.
“It’s not to say that we don’t take in some that aren’t adoptable. But for the most part we do reserve the right - if somebody brings us an animal that is really dangerous, or they bring us an animal that’s 16 years old and on its last legs because they don’t want to have to euthanize it, we help them with funds, but we have them take it to a vet. Sometimes they hire us to euthanize, we do sometimes do it for the public, but we only do it if we know that the veterinarian has the same feeling about the animal as we do,” she said.
Becoming a no-kill shelter takes additional resources and commitment. Much of the additional funds are used for veterinary assistance.
“We have built up a fund called the Second Chance Fund, and people can donate to that directly. That money goes towards vet visits. We just took an animal across the street to Pet Street Station because the animal had a high fever. We don’t quite know what’s going to come of it, we think they’ll probably just prescribe an antibiotic,” said Clarke.
“So that’s the extra cost for us to become a no-kill shelter. We have to help the animals by having extra funds for veterinary visits,” said Clarke.
“We all care about the animals a great deal, so the idea is that we do the best we can for them, and the best we can do is keep them healthy and adoptable so they can find a home. And if that means we have to care for them a little bit longer or that we go to a no-kill policy, then we can honestly say that we care for these animals. From a development standpoint, people are more apt to donate to you if they know you’re a no-kill shelter than they would if you were a kill shelter. Getting funds is important because that’s how we maintain the health of the animals. So, it’s a win-win.”

Finding a companion in a pandemic

Typically, the SPCA has anywhere between 150 and 200 at the shelter. They accept on average between 500 and 600 each year.
There are twelve paid staff but only one full-time employee. The SPCA has also traditionally relied on a number of volunteers to aid them but due to COVID-19 the shelter has temporarily suspended volunteer programs. The shelter did not have any layoffs in 2020 because of the payroll protection plan.
On average the Chenango SPCA spend about $1,000 a day to run it facility in Norwich. There annual budget is about $370,000.
That $1,000 a day pays for food, lights, heat and the staff.
The animals are allowed to go outside for two or three times a day and staff often work with the animals if they have issues to help improve their adoptability. They house train and socialize animals that need help learning things.
“If an animal is particularly shy or something, we’ll have a person from staff work with them one-on-one and try to get it so that they are adoptable because that’s the whole point, is to get as many animals adopted as possible,” said Clarke.
In 2020 the SPCA adopted out 486 animals. Clarke said the shelter saw more interest from the public in 2020 than a normal year, likely due to people seeking companionship during the pandemic lockdown.
Currently the shelter is open by an appointment only. Clarke said those wanting to look at the animals need to call ahead, and they will make arrangements as soon as possible, on slower days that could be only a short time later. Staff and visitors must wear a mask and additional cleaning work is done every night to ensure a clean environment.
Clarke said animals provide physical and emotional support, and that many who are living isolated lifestyles appreciated that more than ever.
“Animals bring comfort. They have said that when a cat purrs your blood pressure goes down because it relaxes you and it’s soothing. When a dog comes and lays his head in your lap and you’re petting him, it helps you. It’s not human contact, but it’s living, breathing contact. I think people reached out for animals because this is their way of having warm-blood contact. Do I think that that’s the only reason why we adopted out as many as we did? It’s hard to tell, because we had that one program called the Safe Haven Funds for Animals that allowed people to adopt with no charge,” said Clarke.

Supporter of animals in need

The Safe Haven Funds program ran from January to the beginning of November. It started because a donor wanted to relieve the cost of adoptions fees.
The donor also covered the cost of all spay and neuter procedures because by New York State law the SPCA cannot release an animal that hasn’t been spayed or neutered.
It’s a little more than a $100 for a cat and about $200 for a dog, depending on if it’s male or female and what size the animals are. More than 400 animals have been through the program.
“The spay or neuter fee is the highest. Our adoption fees were $40 for a cat and $100 for a dog, and when you would get the animal they would be up to date on their vaccines, they would have a microchip, they would be healthy and ready to go home. But it was that spay and neuter fee that really caught people unaware,” said Clarke.
COVID has made not just volunteering difficult but also postponed most of the SPCA’s fundraising events.
“No volunteers and no fundraising besides the appeal letters. No actual fundraising events, like our Furball for February has already been cancelled. Our stocking event in November was cancelled. We had a Putt-Putt for Paws event for this summer that was cancelled,” said Clarke.
The SPCA sent out only a couple of appeal letters in 2020, half their normal amount
“We were trying to be sensitive to the fact that many people were either without a job or maybe they worked in a restaurant and they were laid off, and we knew that money could be tight,” she explained.
Instead, the SPCA reached out to major donors and asked if they could spare a little more. And those strong supporters in the community responded, offered enough aid for the shelter to break-even in 2020.
One donor doubled their contribution from $5,000 to $10,000.
Yet despite the relaxed approach many people still donated.
About 1,200 people, who have been regular donors to the SPCA over the past three years gave something, many gave more.
Clarke said she and the board were impressed and very grateful.
“We always try to emphasize is that there’s no gift that is too small. I just want to say thank you,” she said.
The SPCA has many business supporters as well, including most recently a annual partnership with Staffworks.
Staffworks is the recruitment agency based in Norwich and every year they sponsor a charitable giving event through their not-for-profit foundation. Organized by the founder of the company Anita A. Vitullo, the “Staffworks Save a Life Campaign,” has donated large sums to animal shelter across the region, including Chenango County.
“She gives us the opportunity to do the Save a Life Campaign. She works with 38 kennel organizations in Central New York. We did it last year and it’s a great program that make a serious impact,” said Clarke.
The SPCA was able to raise $116,282.82 through the Save-A-Life Foundation and generous community support.
According to Clarke, this year’s campaign was themed as: “Give the Gift of Life,” where Staffworks matched every donation, dollar-for-dollar during December, up to $10,000 to the animal shelter.
She said Staffworks donated an additional $1,000 for every $5,000 raised. She added that with limited visitation and an inability to hold regular fundraising events, the SPCA has relied on these regular community donors and savings to cope with the ongoing pandemic. The year before the program raised $92,000.
The SPCA has also been apply for more grants and has a trust fund it can tap into for emergencies.
“We’re watching our pennies. We’re watching what we do. I write more grants. We have a decent trust fund that, if we are really short, we can pull out of. I try not to touch it, but it’s there if I need it. We have a trust that, when I came on board there was almost nothing in it, and now we’re sitting pretty well. But it’s there for emergencies and we’re hoping not to use it, so we keep trying to just add to it.”
Leading by example, seeking help in the months ahead
Clarke is hoping that 2021 will be better than 2020 but if the shelter has to cope with another difficult year it may have to reduce staff by the beginning of the coming summer.
“It’s hard because staff cares for the animals and we don’t carry a lot of excess staff. Twelve sounds like a lot of people, but they’re part-time workers, some work in the morning, some in the afternoon, and we have to work seven days a week because there has to be someone here to care for the animals. The shelter manager and I decided, and this is something we worry about, that if anybody comes down with COVID and we have to quarantine staff, we decided we would come in and try to handle it all on our own,” said Clarke.
With less staff the shelter would also seek additional foster homes and reach out to other area animal shelters or kennels who often work with SPCA, like, Doggie Dude Ranch. The group offered to care for all of the SPCA’s dogs, at least temporarily, in an emergency.
The shelter has also lined up 10 foster homes for cats, but with 180 cats, each person would need to accept about 20 animals.
“I’ll put cages in my basement and I’ll put in as many as I can. It takes a lot to take care of that many animals, but if we need to, we’ll figure it out. This is what we do. We’re hoping that it never comes to that. We were very grateful when we could continue to work because we’re considered an essential business, and we are all very careful around each other and everybody is careful out in the community so they’re not bringing it in,” said Clarke.
Clarke had considered stepping down from her role in the next year or two but the pandemic has made things difficult and now she feels she has to stay on longer because so much depends on her.
Recognizing the challenges, the SPCA staff is working closer than ever before.
“If I had to start laying off people that would bother me because these workers are, for the most part, they’re a little bit above minimum wage but not much, and they depend on this. They live paycheck to paycheck. I also will say that they could have left our employ and collected much more in unemployment than working here, but they stuck with us. So that was really positive,” said Clarke.
“We’ve looked out for each other. That’s something that we need to do, we need to be respectful of each other and not do stupid things once you leave the building. I think we have found that the community as a whole is generous and supports us. When I was calling around to see if I could find enough foster places to take cats in case we had to shut down, people came forward that I might not have expected to. So, I think that we see that is really something that’s positive.”
So far no one working at the shelter has fallen ill.
“I think we’re all in this together. We have to work together. That’s the way we look at the positive effects of this,” said Clarke.
The Chenango County SPCA does not receive county or government funding. They do not receiving funding from the larger national SPCA organization either. It relies solely on donations and grants from private charities and foundations.
To help the SPCA visit their website chenangospca.org, you can find an application to volunteer on the site as well. Call 607-334-9724 if you have any questions.