Pets Alive Struggles To Stay

 Pets Alive Westchester recently closed their doors due to the condemnation of their building by the Town of Greenburgh Building Department. Then they held a marathon pet "sale", and consolidated the remaining animals to their Middletown, NY, location. The obvious and remaining question is how the building was allowed to get to such a state of disrepair before reaching a point of condemnation? Structural cracks were increasing the danger of continued use of the building.  Approximately $50k had been spent in an attempt to secure the building. The location is near Brookfield Recycling and has had construction, truck traffic and other contributing factors that are thought to have affected the Pets Alive structure.

Town Building Department officials forced Pets Alive to shut the building down citing it was an non-repairable building and many volunteers were devastated by the news of the projected closing. Many of the animals there were "long-timers" due to either their "bite" history or unfriendly to human beings making them difficult to adopt. The costs associated with an adoption at the time of their regular operation was anywhere from $125 to $300. High operating costs were also a contributing factor towards the closing.

In July it was determined that the deed from the Town to the Pets Alive property had a stipulation that the not for profit could not sell the property for a profit. The property was sold by the Town to Pets Alive for $10 for use as a no-kill animal shelter only. Since its only use could be as an animal shelter, failure to do that would force the property to be returned to the Town for municipal use. No public determination has been expressed toward returning the property to the Town. In fact, it has been quite the contrary. However, Mr Feiner has said one solution might be transferring the deed of the property to another management company and the other is for the property to first be returned to the Town and then to a new manager. However, this "solution" would again saddle the cost of repairs or replacement upon the Unincorporated taxpayer. ABG believes this is unacceptable!

Sadly, we've experienced Mr Feiner's incompetence in choosing management companies for other Town projects. His inability to find and choose established and capable management companies has literally cost the Town's Unincorporated taxpayers millions of dollars! While the building is not the responsibility of the Town, if the Town resumes ownership, the Unincorporated taxpayers will be "on the hook" for necessary repairs. While we disagree with this path,  ABG believes the Town should stay with Pets Alive and work closely with them to get their building back to a habitable state. The Town's overburdened taxpayer does not need to foot the bill for another Feiner Folly. It's time for this administration to focus on running the Town, not grabbing headlines. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Pets Alive Closing The Elmsford Location

Animal welfare group Pets Alive announced plans this week to restructure their organization by closing their Westchester facility located off of Warehouse Lane in Elmsford, NY and consolidating operations to their Middletown, NY location. Skyrocketing repair and maintenance costs of the structurally unsound Westchester shelter coupled with declining revenue led the group to their decision. Pets Alive Westchester was closed from mid-March through July in 2014 due to cracks in the building’s structure. Pets Alive has spent most of the last year exploring options to permanently repair the structure with multiple experts but estimates to save the building total well over a million dollars with no guarantee that the building will be safe.

“Although closing the Westchester location was a very difficult decision to make, the reality is that no amount of money is going to make this building safe in the long term,” said Erin Guilshan, Executive Director of Pets Alive Westchester. “There are issues that cannot be fixed. We have to think about what is best and safest for our organization and our animals.”

In addition to the building problems, Pets Alive is also taking into consideration the operating costs for the building, which exceeds 30,000 square feet. Much of that space goes unused but still needs to be heated, cooled and cared for.

“The Pets Alive organization believes we have a fiscal responsibility to our donors. Although the decision was difficult, we cannot continue to spend our donor’s funds on a building that cannot be properly repaired and costs a phenomenal amount just to maintain. This restructuring will allow us to focus more on our mission to save the lives of the animals that need us.” said Pets Alive Chief Financial Officer Jenessa Cutler.

Both Pets Alive locations have waived their adoption fee for the immediate future. They will be offering animals for adoption to qualified adopters for a donation of the adopter’s choosing. The facility will stay open for several more months to rehome the animals already housed in the building, although no new animals will be taken in. Any animals remaining in Westchester will be transferred to the Middletown location.

Pets Alive wishes to emphasize that absolutely no animals will be euthanized because of this transition, and all animals will be safe. Pets Alive remains extremely committed to the welfare of the animals in their care and their no kill policy, and careful consideration will be paid to their stress level and health during the transition. Enrichment programs are being developed to ensure a smooth transition for the animals. Rescue efforts for community animals will continue in the Middletown location.

Board President John Sibley says, “Pets Alive recognizes the importance of our presence in Westchester. We are committed to exploring options to maintain a future presence in Westchester County.”

At this time, Pets Alive welcomes the support of the community in the form of financial donations and volunteer help on both sites to prepare for the transition of the animals. Donations can be made at www.petsalive.org or mailed to Pets Alive, 363 Derby road, Middletown, NY 10940. Pets Alive is a registered 501c3 not-for-profit.-- Audrey Lodato Executive Director Pets Alive

Pets Alive Needs Your Help More Than Ever!

ABG learned of the situation that Pets Alive, formerly the Elmsford Animal Shelter building had been deemed unsafe for occupancy and ordered evacuated. They have moved some animals to sister facilities, trailers and are desperately seeking adoptions of their animals. This is a “no kill” animal facility. If you’ve ever considered adopting a pet, now is a great time to do so!

From Pets Alive Westchester's Facebook page:

This is a very difficult thing to say to all of you, but our building may potentially be in serious jeopardy. It has been determined that Pets Alive Westchester is structurally not sound and needs to evacuate as soon as possible. There is no way around these horrible words.

Our plan is to set up trailers on the property to house all of the animals, and we are in desperate need of foster families and adopters for our dogs, cats and rabbits. Although this is going to be a difficult time, we know we shall get through this. We will set up shop right on the property, trailers will be brought in as soon as possible. Dog runs will be there. Some of our cats thankfully will go to the rescues of our sister location in Middletown as well as Mid Hudson Animal Aid & Pibbles and Kits, such amazing people who have done so much to help us through this - but we would much rather see them in foster homes or adopted.

All of our dogs, however, are in need of foster or adoptive homes and we are pleading to all of you to consider taking one of them in. All adoptions are free and are desperately needed, immediately. Please come to the shelter this weekend and adopt. If you're interested in adopting or fostering a cat, dog or rabbit, contact adoptions@petsalivewest.org to find out who will be the best fit for your home during this time. Please use email to contact us right now as we are not sure how long we will have access to our phones. We will keep you updated as the days progress. One thing you can be certain of is that Pets Alive Westchester is a survivor of all that it has endured and been though. We will get through this and together we will celebrate a new page. Thank you for all your support and help us to spread the word. We need adopters, we need fosters, and we need them now. We need YOU now. We need your help.

Pets Alive Westchester 17 hours ago

UPDATE: We are almost completely out of the building but we still have a need for a small group of volunteers tomorrow, Sunday, at 10am.

You do not need to have taken our orientation, please just show up - we are at 100 Warehouse Lane South in Elmsford, NY. When you come to the building - DO NOT ENTER THE BUILDING. The condition of the building is rapidly deteriorating and possibly dangerous. Please meet in the loading dock area (to the left of the main entrance) for instructions. We need everyone to stay safe! All of our animals are out of the building and we are almost finished emptying the entire building and loading all of the contents into trailers. We have been given a reprieve by the city before they bar us from entering the building and shut off our utilities but we must have absolutely everything out by Sunday night. Please join us if you can and THANK YOU!! We will be unable to respond to questions by phone or email at this time - we have no phones, no computers, no usable base of operations - yet. We're working on it.

At this time we do not need any donations of materials - we have almost no animals left on site. Thank you all so very much for everything donated, especially all of the crates and carriers and storage containers and boxes. We could not have done it without you.

If you are interested in fostering or adopting - especially one of our dogs - please email us at adoptions@petsalivewest.org. We beg your patience as we are receiving thousands of emails per day right now and it may be some days before we can reply.

If you are interested in one of our cats, most have gone to Pets Alive in Middletown and Mid Hudson Animal Aid in Beacon, New York. Please contact them for information on fostering and adopting. Anything you can do would be gratefully appreciated. Tell 'em we sent you.

All of our bunnies have been adopted or fostered.

We could very much use donations of money if you are able to do so. We will lose the use of our facility for a very long time and we have many unpredictable expenses. Anything you could spare would be gratefully appreciated.

Paypal link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=PX2BS6FNGMZUU