Pet Assistance, Inc.

A Bit of History:  Prior to 1970, only “crazy old ladies in tennis shoes” harboring a houseful of cats were associated with animal ‘rescue.’ For some reason 1970 was a turning point: educated, respected middle and upper class people started organizing and exposing the plights of animals in pounds. I use the above adjectives to describe these people (mainly women and mothers) only because many of them were in a social class acquainted with people of influence and knew how to get their voices heard. It was a time when unheated, dilapidated shelters were filled with shepherd mixes (pit bulls were unheard then) and distemper was rampant. Cats, second class citizens at shelters, were euthanized daily. These early grassroots advocates for animals demanded humane treatment of impounded dogs and cats and instituted programs for vaccinating and spaying before placement.

Pet Assistance, Inc. germinated and grew from those days. We were the first humane society in Westchester County to open a ‘cats only’ shelter and we’ve placed thousands of cats over the years, all spayed. We proved that cat overpopulation can be controlled. In the early days our low cost spay program was the only one in Westchester other than ‘Friends of Animals.’ Our volunteers went to schools, libraries and organization meetings to spread the word about spaying and proper pet care.  We ran low cost vaccinating clinics in inner city areas several times a year until 2002.

Pet Assistance, Inc. evolved with the times. We stopped our vaccinating clinics in 2001 because people can now go to PETCO and other places for low cost shots. More important, we discovered that most of the shots given to pets were not even necessary.

Thousands of animals were spayed through our low cost (often free) program, but now that there are spay clinics and most shelters offer low cost certificates to the public, our spay program is primarily for pets adopted from us.

Hello Pet Assistance,

            When I first got Diva I thought she would be boring and wouldn’t do anything I wanted to do but it turned out she is a ball of fire and will do whatever my younger dog will  do.  And also whenever I go to bed she comes on the bed and nuzzles her head into my chest. She also gets along with my mom and dad. Diva also makes cute faces that make our family laugh.  Diva also talks to us and makes noises that are like a dog yawning. If we make a noise like a bark she’ll get excited and bark back. I think picking our dogs was the best decision my parents and I ever made.

       From Conner Fitzpatrick, 11 years old