Joy Wegner and Mera Laureys
It’s a shorter name, with an expanded focus!
Friends of Pinal County Animal Shelter and Rescues has evolved to Friends of Pinal Pets, Inc.
The new name reflects an added mission: preventing pets from even entering a shelter. Pinal County Animal Care & Control (PCACC), located near Casa Grande, is running at or above 150% of capacity. There are simply more dogs and cats needing homes than ever!
Processes that will prevent dogs and cats from even entering a shelter is an immediate and a long-term goal to address the overcrowding. Placing more animals in a facility not designed for the current demand PCACC is seeing creates issues with staffing, volunteer efforts, and daily management of a safe housing place for animals.
An overcrowded shelter environment can be detrimental to the behavioral health of some pets, making adoptions challenging.
Friends of Pinal Pets will focus on creating and funding processes, such as assistance with spay/neuter programs, that will ultimately reduce the number of dogs and cats needing temporary shelter. The nonprofit organization will also pursue additional methods, focused on preventing animals from coming into the shelter.
The volunteer-run Friends of Pinal Pets will continue with their original goals as well. A primary goal is financial support for shelter dogs and cats that have medical needs beyond the financial resources of the county shelter, as well as funding medical equipment and services at the PCACC facility. The group’s second goal is to provide resource support to local animal rescue groups working with PCACC.
Friends of Pinal Pets can still be found online on Facebook at Facebook/FriendsofPinal. If you’d like more information, or you’d like to donate, please go to FriendsofPinal.org in your internet browser and access the “more” tab, then the “contact us” tab.
The volunteers who maintain Friends of Pinal Pets do this “because … they are counting on us!”