When Kasey Stiff ran down the list of volunteer opportunities offered by Madison House, it included choices of helping out at local elementary schools, befriending the elderly, building housing for the poor and helping the environment. Despite the wide variety, though, she could not find a single program designed for helping out animals in the Charlottesville community.
At the start of the semester Stiff founded "Pet Pals," a program designed to meet this need.
"I thought that Madison House should be as rounded as possible," Stiff said. "They seemed to have a program for everything but animals, so I started looking into one."
The 18 current members of Pet Pals volunteer at the Charlottesville-Albermarle Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for a minimum of two hours a week, performing various tasks for the shelter.
According to Stiff, the most common tasks include grooming, bathing, helping keep the cat and dog runs clean and engaging the animals in physical activities.
The hired staff takes care of the administrative work, the most important of which is simply getting the animals adopted by responsible owners. Because this tends to consume most of their time at the shelter, however, they often are not able to provide the amount of attention the animals need, volunteer coordinator Dawn Gibson said. Most of the work the volunteers do, therefore, is to fulfill these basic necessities.
"The volunteers are an extension of the actual paid staff that help accomplish what [the employees] don't have time for," Gibson said. "Most of our volunteers mainly take care of the animals and socialize with them as much as possible."
To become a volunteer, all members are required to attend an information session that goes over the rules and safety precautions of working with animals that possibly have a history of mistreatment and/or disease, Stiff said.
The information session essentially is provided for the safety of volunteers as well as the safety of the animals. Viruses can spread quickly throughout the shelter if the necessary precautions are not handled correctly, Gibson said.
"The information session is designed to help the volunteers know what the shelter is about and what they can expect working there," Gibson said. "But most of the learning comes from actual hands on experience."
According to the C-A SPCA information packet, the C-A SPCA has been around since 1914, and has continued to grow every year since.
Although the original building was a chicken-coup that has been expanded over the years, a new, larger facility currently is under construction and is projected to be completed sometime next year.
According to Gibson, approximately 5000 animals come through the local SPCA each year.
Although the majority consists of cat and dogs, she added, the shelter will accept any animal that needs its help -- as can be seen by the cages filled with rabbits, rodents and even a seagull in the front entrance.
This vast number of animals that go through the shelter each year is partially due to the shelter's "open door" policy.
This policy, she said, means the SPCA will not turn away any animals given into its care, even when there is no more room for them in any of the 49 dog runs or approximately 50 cat cages. Although this number generally is regulated by a relatively high turnover rate, euthanasia is an unfortunate reality for some of the animals at the shelter.
The main goal of the shelter revolves around getting the animals adopted, but this process is not taken lightly, Gibson said.
No animal is to be adopted without the projected owner having committed to abide by the shelter regulation that requires all adopted cats and dogs to be scheduled for a spaying/neutering operation, she added.
This rule is related to the Virginia law that requires mandatory spay/neuter of all shelter animals by the age of six months.
According to Gibson, this law is in place to help reduce the plethora of unwanted animals within the state.
The problem of overcrowded shelters, therefore, cannot be solved merely through adoption, but must be attacked at the source through regulations such as this, she said.
In addition, owners must go through an interview process before adoption so that the staff can help them choose an appropriate pet for their lifestyle, according to their history with animals.
This screening also helps reduce the possibility that the animal will be mistreated or neglected.
According to SPCA staff members, besides providing a safe environment for the homeless and neglected animals of Charlottesville and providing people with a way of acquiring a pet, the C-A SPCA also aims to educate the public about animal welfare.
It sponsors numerous off-site special events that are directed toward achieving this goal. Volunteers from Madison House are required to be involved in at least one of these programs per semester.
These programs also help deal with the problem of overcrowded shelters by informing the public of the issue and increasing the awareness of the need for these animals to be placed in loving, caring homes.
Those wishing to get involved with Pet Pals will have to wait until next semester to sign up, but the shelter has many other volunteers that are not associated with any group and currently is willing to accept any help it can receive, Gibson said.
For more information on how to get involved, contact Volunteer Coordinator Dawn Gibson at 434-973-5959 ext. 29, or volunteer@caspca.org.
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