Alliance Helps HVARS Find New Homes for ACC Pets

2015 has been a groundbreaking year for the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, and we are projecting a 90% community-wide Live Release Rate! In celebration of our dedicated community partners who have made this achievement possible, we are sharing their success stories with you this month. Thanks to their tireless efforts, and to your consistent support of the Alliance programs that facilitate their work, we will continue to make huge strides for the homeless pets and community cats in our city in the new year.

Every day of the year, the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals’ Wheels of Hope (WOH) vans transport companion animals from the Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC) to other Alliance Participating Organizations who have the resources to find them new homes.

In 2015 alone, WOH vans delivered approximately 600 animals to Hudson Valley Animal Rescue & Sanctuary (HVARS), located in Poughkeepsie, about 90 miles north of New York City. According to HVARS’ Karen LeCain, approximately 550 of them have already been adopted. “It would be impossible to save this number of animals,” Karen says, “if we didn’t have the Wheels of Hope program to help with transport.”

The Alliance works directly with ACC to arrange for transport and takes new animals to HVARS at least twice a week. One dog who recently benefited from this collaboration is Dee Dee, a medium-sized terrier who arrived at ACC shortly before she was about to give birth. Dee Dee needed a quiet place to have her puppies, HVARS agreed to take her, and the WOH set up an emergency transport. “It would have been impossible for us to drive to the city,” says Karen, “so this is just another case where the WOH has come through for our organization and an animal in need.”

Dee Dee delivered seven beautiful, healthy puppies in an HVARS foster home. All will be up for adoption after they are weaned, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and microchipped.

While HVARS’ main focus is cats and dogs, they are committed to rescuing and rehabilitating animals of all kinds. Chickens, doves, hamsters, rabbits, guinea pigs, a goat, a lamb, a pig, and a turtle were all on the WOH passenger list to the facility in just the past year. “The Wheels of Hope program,” says Karen, “is one of the main reasons that our rescue has grown so much over the past five years.”