Among those who invite the public to get more involved with True Friends Animal Welfare Shelter are (clockwise, from top) advisory board president Tom Chamberlain, board member Linda Lee (holding Badger), assistant manager Lexi Hemenway (holding Alexa), and True Friends board president Anna McNamara.
Story and photo by Rick Hiduk
(Originally published in the Susquehanna County Independent)
For the past 14 years, True Friends Animal Welfare Center has inhabited a shelter that was constructed in 2002 by the Humane Society of Susquehanna County. True Friends was founded by a small group of concerned citizens when they learned that the Humane Society was pulling out of Montrose. In the process, the stately building at the intersection of Grow Avenue and routes 706 and 167, which was privately owned, was given to True Friends for one dollar with the stipulation that it always remain and animal shelter.
“It’s a good looking building,” new True Friends Advisory Board president Tom Chamberlain noted. “When you drive by, you might get the impression that we’re doing pretty good.”
And True Friends is doing well in terms of how many animals they have made ready for adoption and the level of care they have been able to provide for them. But, for all of the ups and downs that the staff and members of the shelter’s board and advisory committee have weathered, True Friends is currently in serious need of monetary contributions, volunteers, and fresh faces on the board who may also have new ideas to maintain the vitality and future of the shelter.
According to current board president and long-time True Friends associate Anna McNamara, donations are flat at best at a time when the cost of everything needed for building maintenance and animal care is rising. “It has a lot to do with the economy. People are being impacted, and it’s been going on for awhile,” McNamara offered. “Even if you thought you could get through it, it’s more difficult now. There’s a lot of unknowns, and there’s a limited amount of dollars chasing a lot of nonprofits.”
“It’s crisis management is what it is,” Chamberlain stated. “We’re constantly in fundraising mode. It wears people down.”
McNamara related that most of their fundraisers have been fairly successful over the past few years, especially the annual events. “You could never say that the community doesn’t support us,” five-year board member and 14-year volunteer Linda Lee stated. “It’s unbelievable how they step up. But at some point, they are surviving too. You’re hitting up the same people, and you can’t saturate them.”
And, McNamara explained, “The people involved here are constantly aware. We go to bed thinking about raising money, and we wake up thinking about money.”
There was a general agreement between those interviewed that some people have misconceptions of how non-profit, no-kill shelters operate and fund their activities. “There’s not a government fund that we get a monthly check from,” said McNamara. “I don’t know if the public understands that.”
The Susquehanna County Commissioners do make a sizable donation to the shelter every year, Chamberlain related, but he wonders if the municipal contributions couldn’t be higher if there were a more mutual understanding. “I’m surprised that counties haven’t found a way to have an excise tax, and the boroughs and townships. They do it to keep the libraries going,” he stated. “The problem of feral cats and stray dogs is countywide, statewide, and nationwide.”
State dog warden Jesse Baker has told True Friends’ associates that there’s is the only place that they have to take abandoned and neglected dogs. A statement from the PA Department of Agriculture, press secretary Shannon Powers indicated that, if True Friends did not exist, “stray dogs without a license would be transported to the nearest shelter in another county.”
The cost for caring for the animal varies greatly, depending on their condition when they arrive at True Friends and what health conditions they may incur. Dietary needs differ and evolve the longer an animal stays with them. “It’s not like we feed everybody the same thing. We have certain dogs that get certain foods that are very expensive. They have allergies and illnesses that last,” said McNamara. The circumstances under which they are rescued or surrendered are usually less than ideal. “We have dogs that come in, and we realize that they need dental care. The (public may) think we bring in healthy dogs and then we send them out. Those are things that are part of running a shelter that I don’t think people think about.”
Thanks to the variety of skills and expertise of advisory board members, dedicated staff members, cooperative and supportive veterinarians, and compassionate volunteers, True Friends has managed up to this time to care for and improve the health of thousands of dogs and cats. “When people pick up a dog from us, they are picking up a healthy dog,” McNamara maintained. “If they have an allergy or other problem, we’re going to tell them about it. There’s not any surprises. But I don’t think that people associate with how the dog got to that point.”
It’s common, she and Chamberlain noted, for a potential adopter of a shelter animal to question why they should have to pay even the nominal adoption fee if that are taking the animal off their hands. Luckily, most share the mindset that they are “paying it forward” to help the shelter care for another animal for a future pet owner, and others have paid twice the adoption fee as a donation. Not replacing a third full-time employee has saved them some money, and a June 21 golf tournament and September Woofstock fundraiser remain on the calendar.
“We staff to the minimum,” McNamara explained. “That’s why we don’t have somebody sitting at the desk when you come in. Would we like to have one? Yes. Maybe it could be a volunteer.” Manager Jessica Hums and assistant Lexi Hemenway are the current full time employees. All board members are volunteers.
But facing rising overall costs and the need for roof and siding repairs on both buildings, board members have had to consider possible closure for the first time. “If we cannot get the money that we need to run the shelter, we will have to stop taking animals. Because we’re no-kill, we’ve got to find homes for what we have,” McNamara said of the first drastic steps. “We’ll have to start shrinking the shelter to fit what we can support. There are ways to close down a nonprofit, and we would have to go through that process. There will be no choice if we don’t have money.”
True Friends Animal Welfare Shelter has recently embarked on a Go Fund Me campaign to raise $50,000 as an emergency stop-gap measure, but their long-term needs likely far exceed that goal. It has become a matter, Lee suggested, of constantly reminding people that the needs faced by True Friends on a daily basis are endless. The ways in which the public can become involved as direct donors, volunteers, or board members, however, is equally limitless.
“We’re always in danger of closing. We’re never walking around saying, ‘Well we’ve got $200,000 in the bank,’” McNamara related. “How long will it last? It depends. If we get six very sick animals that come in the door, we’re overloaded, and it’s not going to last long. There’s nothing static about it. It depends on what’s happening. We hope that it doesn’t come to the point that we don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.”
To learn more about how to support and become involved with the organization, interested readers can log on to truefriendsrescue.com and follow True Friends Animal Welfare Center on Facebook.