As a neighboring shelter - Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society - I wanted to let you know how important to us Second Chance's work is to the community of shelters in Western Massachusetts. It's only been since Second Chance began their innovative spay/neuter program that we've been able to spay/neuter most of our shelter's adoptees before they go home. When I call the local vets to get spay/neuter appointments, they may give me one or two appointments, three weeks from now. That doesn't help much when I need 30 appointments each week, every week, during kitten season! Because Second Chance can spay/neuter 20 kittens for us in one day, we drive over an hour to them, every week. This means that we don't have to worry about our adoptees having 'accidental' litters before they get spayed in their new homes!
Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society is also proud to partner with Second Chance with our Feral Spay Sunday program (celebrating serving our 5,000th cat on 4/20/08!). However, I will tell you frankly that Second Chance is by far the least-favorite host site for Feral Spay Sunday - I have a hard time getting volunteers signed up. It's tiny and cramped, people are standing on top of each other, and we have to put some folks outside because there just isn't room for them indoors when we're spaying/neutering 80 or more cats in there. During inclement weather, I've seen the poor volunteers who are stationed outside turn blue and shaking because of the cold (we don't put cats outdoors, just our poor human volunteers). And with the tight tank septic issue, we have to tell people not to flush the toilet too often...you know animal rescue, it's all women...so imagine 25 women with one tiny bathroom that you can't flush the toilet very often. No wonder it's hard to get volunteers to help at our clinics held at Second Chance! They do the best they can to make up for it with their enthusiasm, but it's hard to overcome a space that's just too small to fit everyone indoors.
What I love best about Second Chance is their innovation and amazing things they do with their tiny space - and how much they reach out to work with other groups. They dream big - but they make their dreams come true. Playing well with others can be a hard-to-come-by quality in the shelter/rescue world; Second Chance embodies it.
Karina King, Animal Care Manager
Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society
www.dakinshelter.org Read less