What happens to your donations?

November 19, 2009:

All donations to the shelter are applied towards shelter operations, which in a normal year amounts to approximately $350,000. Funds of approximately $200,000 are usually held as investments in CDs to make up for times when the expenses exceed the income.

Your financial adviser will tell you to have at least 6 months worth of average income in the bank for emergencies. Well, the money that we invest is the same. Lots of shelters have been closing in recent months due to a drying out of funding and a lack of financial safety net. We are trying to avoid having to close our shelter, any time we do not receive enough donations to cover the expenses.

The Second Chance Animal Shelter has not kept up with the increase in the homeless animal population - because of insufficient resources.

We have been turning down animals that were being surrendered because of lack of space. We need an annex to move our outside animals into indoors kennels, at an estimated cost of $250,000.

We need to be able to better afford expensive surgeries on injured animals and purchase new surgical equipment and instrumentation.

News reports today stated that the insurance will pay for the fire damage, an amount of about $26,000. That is correct. And that would probably cover the expenses if we wanted to rebuild up to the status quo and not take this opportunity to improve the facilities.

What also has to be taken into consideration is that we do not get the normal income from daily adoptions, yet we still have the daily expenses for wages, maintenance and upkeep, as well as medical.

We can assure our kind-hearted donors and volunteers and people who care about the shelter that every penny donated towards the rebuilding after the fire will go to exactly that cause. Following is a list of improvements that are being made in addition to the reconstruction:

• We are expanding the facility
• We are rewiring the entire building to code to prevent any future electrical fires
• We are upgrading the shelter in a cost effective manner such as installing energy efficient lighting among other things
• We are adding a surgery room at the request of our veterinarians
• Energy efficient lighting throughout the facility
• Removable walls around the dog patio, affording additional shelter as needed
  and last but not least
• Heat sensors and monitored fire alarm system that is directly linked to the fire station, reducing the response time to 3-5 minutes.
  

We hope that the recent reports that were based on anonymous accusations have not unduly worried you or caused you to lose faith in your local No Kill Animal Shelter.