The Richmond Animal League has an urgent mission: to save cats and dogs facing imminent death at two county shelters and find them loving homes.

How close to euthanasia are some of these homeless animals? “Sometimes it’s that day,” says Susan Kelly of the Richmond Animal League (RAL). “We will go into animal control and ask ‘Who do you have?’ We need to save as many as we can.”

Unfortunately, RAL, the oldest no-kill shelter in the Richmond area, can’t take all those who face death. “It’s not an easy job to pull animals,” says Kelly. “It’s not an easy decision. When I first started working here, I was astonished.”

But for those who get to live, life becomes good. Many of RAL’s 65 cats — as long as they get along with others — get to live in the equivalent of a feline playground, a newly-built, large and cage-free room filled with ramps and cat trees, and even a flat-screen TV. Some have been at the facility for years. RAL’s 35 dogs live in runs that lead to an outdoor play area, much like a doggy park. Most are mixed breeds.

The rescue also sponsors two free spay and neuter days a year, to help curb the area’s huge homeless pet problem. “So many people still don’t spay and neuter, so there are animals that people throw away, leave outside, abandon,” says Kelly. “What always gets me, they’ll day, ‘Well, I might want to breed them.’”

When Halo found out about RAL’s good works, it donated 100 cases  dog Spot’s Stew and 300 cases of cat Spot’s Stew, worth $10,932 retail.

“We’ve never received such a large donation,” says Kelly, RAL’s development director. “It means so much to us. Easily hundreds benefited. ”

RAL shared the gift with Southside SPCA, in Meherrin, Virgina, and the local Meals on Wheels, which delivers monthly supplies of cat and dog food to home-bound people who need help feeding their pets. In just weeks, the donation was gobbled up. Says Kelly: “There is such a big need for it in this area.”

The dogs and cats with sensitive stomachs particularly benefitted from Spot’s Stew, she says, noting that the usual fare at RAL for its 17 adults dogs and several litters of puppies, and the 65 cats, is dry food. “The Halo food is of exceptional quality,” says Kelly. “Our animals have responsed very well to it, they really liked it.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Giving Back. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.