Come to the animal shelter Sat. Aug 27 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. to meet our pets, help support AWC in the ASPCA Challenge and help save lives. Potential adopters will draw thermometers [...]]]> Learn about pet care, basic obedience and draw for sizzling adoption discounts during AWC’s Beat the Heat event on Sat. Aug. 27.

Come to the animal shelter Sat. Aug 27 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. to meet our pets, help support AWC in the ASPCA Challenge and help save lives. Potential adopters will draw thermometers displaying not summer temps but discounts of 25, 50 and 100% savings on adoptable animals that can be redeemed throughout the ASPCA Challenge period which runs until Oct. 31.

Participate in our shelter open house and on site behavior and care clinic, too. Gain tips on basic obedience and pet grooming care. AWC hopes to educate owners on pet care in order to reduce the surrender of owned animals to the shelter by people who can no longer care for their pets.

Thus far in 2011, 970 owned pets have been surrendered to AWC.
“AWC wants to be a winner in the Challenge, but more importantly we hope to use this competition as a vehicle to educate pet owners,” said shelter coordinator Gretchen Sherrill. “Too often owners fail to provide basic pet care, such as regular grooming of long haired, fluffy dogs, and then surrender their pets when matted fur and skin infections due to poor grooming arise. They can’t understand what happened to their cute pet. We want owners to realize that pets depend on them to maintain good health.”
Remember Free Cat Fridays with approved applications is ongoing throughout 2011.

Help St. Croix compete in the ASPCA Challenge. To learn more, volunteer or donate visit www.StCroixAWC.org or find us on Facebook. To inquire about an adoptable pet contact our adoptions department at adoptions@stcroixawc.org.

Celebrate Crucian pets—join your friends at the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center (AWC) for a Challenge Carnival.

On Saturday, July 30 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. the pets and staff at the animal shelter will hold a mini carnival to honor local culture [...]]]> St. Croix Animal Welfare Center Kicks
Off National Adoptions Event with “Challenge Carnival”

Celebrate Crucian pets—join your friends at the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center (AWC) for a Challenge Carnival.

On Saturday, July 30 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. the pets and staff at the animal shelter will hold a mini carnival to honor local culture and promote adoptions as part of the ASPCA Challenge.

The event will feature food, music, a mock tramp of animal shelter pets, prize raffles. Free microchips will be offered to the first 50 pet owners who request this service. As an added bonus, adoption fees will be wiaved for approved applicants.

“A portion of the competition is community outreach and AWC staff felt that holding a mini carnival was a great way to welcome the public and highlight our local culture as part of this national competition,” said shelter coordinator, Gretchen Sherrill. “Besides, shelter pets, like all Crucians, love to fete.”

AWC is one of 49 shelters nationwide competing for $300, 000 in grant awards from the ASPCA. AWC will be judged on the number of adoptions, reunions of lost pets to owners and transfers to other rescues that takes place during the review period of Aug. 1 to Oct. 31, 2011.

Not able to adopt? Consider supporting AWC with a gift. No amount is too small. For example, $10 buys a heartworm test, $25 a microchip, $50 buys 2 bags of dog food, $100 sponsors an adoption and $250 buys an airline ticket for a pet to fly cargo to a new home via pets from paradise.

Donate via Paypal on this website or mail gifts to St. Croix Animal Welfare Center RR2 #32 Clifton Hill, Kingshill, VI 00850. AWC is a registered 501 c 3 non profit in good standing. Gifts are tax deductable.

For more information about this event or how you can donate, please contactl Gretchen Sherrill at communications@stcroixawc.org.

St. Croix Animal Welfare Center (AWC) participated in two hurricane preparedness events last week. On June 2, AWC staff attended the VITEMA expo held at Sunny Isles. In addition to providing information and hand outs to the hundreds of patrons who visited the event, AWC provided pet licenses to attendees. [...]]]>

AWC Staff at VITEMA event

St. Croix Animal Welfare Center (AWC) participated in two hurricane preparedness events last week. On June 2, AWC staff attended the VITEMA expo held at Sunny Isles. In addition to providing information and hand outs to the hundreds of patrons who visited the event, AWC provided pet licenses to attendees. Stray intake at the shelter facility dramatically increases after weather events. AWC provides rescue and shelter to pets affected by storms; however, if owners fail to license pets, reuniting lost pets with their families is incredibly difficult. More than 20 attendees picked up pet licenses in addition to valuable information about including one’s pet in disaster preparedness.

On June 4, more than 80 pets received microchips thanks to St. Croix AWC and EPayment America who sponsored the event. Microchips were provided to pets at no charge and volunteers  along side AWC staff and board members registered patrons and provided the chips. The event was held on the beach in Frederiksted at Rhythms at Rainbow Beach.

Puppy Tina gets a microchip with help from Senator Nellie O'Reilly and Epayment America's Todd Gentilucci

This event was a double bonus for Nikki, the lab mix, who’d been at AWC since January seeking a home. EPayment America employee, Heidi, is adopting Nikki who couldn’t be more excited about moving from STX (the big island) to NYC (the big apple). Congratulations, Nikki!

Epayment America Family with Nikki--l-r Todd, staff member Heidi (who adopted Nikki) company president Chris Reckert and daughter Olivia

More than 2500 strays entered the shelter in 2010, the majority lacking id tags or microchips. In an effort to increase registration and successful reunions, AWC promoted this successful event. A second event will be held mid island near the end of July.

“AWC wants to encourage St. Croix pets owners to get prepared for the hurricanes of life and remember to id your pet,” said Shelter Coordinator Gretchen Sherrill. “We commend the individuals who tagged or chipped their pets this week as part of our outreach and we encourage more owners to take responsibility and ensure the safety of their pet with proper identification.”

This special event is part of AWC’s participation in [...]]]> Join AWC beach side at Rhythms at Rainbow Beach on June 4 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for Operation Crucian Companion–a free tag and chip event. Due to the gracious sponsorship of EPaymentAmerica, AWC is able to provide Free microchipping to the public during this special event.

This special event is part of AWC’s participation in the ASPCA Challenge. During the Challenge, the ASPCA will monitor AWC’s performance in returning lost pets to their owners. The Challenge monitoring period is Aug. 1 to Oct 31—which is also hurricane season. In order to prevent more strays now, AWC is reaching out to STX pet owners now.

Please join us on June 4 and ensure the safety of your pet via licensing and microchipping. Last year more than 2000 strays entered our shelter. Don’t let your pet become a sad statistic. Be Responsible! To voluneer, learn more about microchips, or how you can help email communications@stcroixawc.org.

The St. Croix Animal Welfare Center didn’t finish first, but [...]]]> The following article can be found in the St. Croix Source here: http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2011/04/12/animal-welfare-center-hunt-100k-aspca-prize

 

These puppies are the reason to vote for the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center in the ASPCA $100K Challenge.

The St. Croix Animal Welfare Center didn’t finish first, but the ASPCA $100K Challenge is  proving that people really care about Crucian critters.

On Tuesday morning in online voting, the center was ninth out of 95 competitors and is now in the hunt win ASPCA grant money.

Each shelter canvasses for as many votes as possible and then the top 50 vote getters compete in the final cash challenge. Challenge finalists will be eligible to compete for $300,000 worth of grant funds, including the grand prize of $100,000 to a single shelter.

Shelter coordinator Gretchen Sherrill said there is $25,000 for outreach and promotions. She said the St. Croix shelter managed to prove what it can do with social media outreach with the response it got from voters.

AWC reached out via Facebook and nearly 1,000 email blasts asking everyone to vote for Crucian pets. The top 50 shelters are determined by a community outreach and voting project at www.VotetoSaveLives.org.

To register to vote all one has to do is have an email address and the desire to see AWC get a chance to win grant money.

“We need all our friends and supporters to continue to vote and not give in to voter fatigue,” said Sherrill. “The response has been outstanding, and we need everyone to keep up momentum to help us in our quest to save more lives and continue to vote until midnight Friday.”

 

AWC adoption technician Stephany DeJesus and Tickle.

Sherrill said they will find out in October who the winners will be.

“There is still a lot of work between now and then,” Sherrill said. “There is reporting and record keeping and continued adoptions to do.”

To learn more about the Challenge visit www.aspcapro.org/challenge.

“We fight everyday for a better life for our pets. Winning this challenge could make an incredible difference in the lives of pets on St. Croix,” Sherrill said. “We need to be innovative on funding and not be thought of as being dependent on the government. We always have to be diligent and take a look at alternative funding sources as in the challenge.”

Founded in 1973, the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center promotes the humane treatment of animals in the St. Croix community through humane education, animal protection, and community service.

To learn more about programs and services visit www.StCroixAWC.org

The ASPCA was the first humane organization in the Western Hemisphere. The mission, as stated by the founder, Henry Bergh, in 1866, is “to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States.”

The year 2010 saw an unwelcome jump for the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center, as some 3,500 animals came through the [...]]]> The article below is from the St. Croix Source and can be found here.

 

Gretchen Sherrill (left) and Stephany DeJesus shows off a puppy up for adoption.

The year 2010 saw an unwelcome jump for the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center, as some 3,500 animals came through the center, about 500 above their average.

Director Gretchen Sherrill pointed out that the shelter is the only place on St. Croix where they have an open admission policy. They will accept any animal in any condition and will never turn away any animal regardless of how dangerous or ill nourished it may be.

To break down the numbers a little further, 2,000 of the animals accepted last year were strays that had been abandoned and/or were victims of abuse, criminal activity, or neglect. The remaining 1,500 were owner surrenders – either because they have too many, are moving off the island, or simply can no longer afford them. Sherrill thinks that the major factor in the increase is due to the struggling economy. Owners simply can no longer afford their pets.

She is worried the economy might also take a toll on AWC’s operations. About one-fifth of their funding comes from government contracts, but with the economic decline, these funds could also be affected.

“We as an organization need to be innovative to get ahead of the game,” she said about trying to make up the difference in case of funding cutbacks.

The shelter offers many low-cost options for animals. For example, a pet can be sprayed or neutered for $25, and adopted for a mere $100, which includes de-worming, microchip, tags, vaccines, and spay/neuter services. Furthermore, if a pet is terminally ill, severely injured, or a threat to society, they offer low-cost euthanasia.

Another positive service that AWC offers is its decade-long transfer program called Pets from Paradise, where animals can be adopted from people off-island. Over 200 were placed last year with people living abroad. One major area where adoptions take place is in New York, particularly in the Hamptons.

AWC has worked for more than 20 years with local veterinarians on St. Croix to operate their low-cost spay/neuter program. But in 2010, they began an exciting venture collaborating with the Fix It Foundation, a PetSmart Charity company, to review the AWC database that tracks trends and problem areas for stray animals to help reduce population overgrowth by providing spay/neuter services to these animals at a low cost.

Bethany Bradford, D.V.M., the director of Veterinarian Services for the Department of Agriculture, was also at the conference with other board members Liz Goggins, Karen Poates and Jennie Parrish.

“This year we have really stepped up collaboration and cooperation [with AWC],” Bradford said.

Generally, the department works with livestock and horses, but occasionally, their paths cross and the two services work together to deal with animals who are abused and neglected.

Stephany DeJesus, an adoption technician, then allowed the media for the first time ever to look at their “quarantine surgery center,” which is divided into three sections: treatment, surgical center, and an area for euthanasia. She then took out a few animals that were being housed there and had either been treated for fleas and ticks, or were awaiting adoption.

There were also youth volunteers on-hand who seemed to be loving their weekend duties. One volunteer, Kareem Murrell from Free Will Baptist Church, typically comes every Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. because he thinks it’s fun bathing and walking the animals.

“I do this because I have a passion for animals,” he said smiling.

If you would like to volunteer, or have a desire to adopt a pet, please visit www.stcroixAWC.org, or contact (340) 778-1650.