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Thank
you for visiting our website and viewing all the
beautiful cats and dogs waiting for you to come and meet
them, and maybe take one of them home. Did you know
that Volunteer Services for Animals was the first
organization in the United States dedicated to
helping cats and dogs in municipal animal
shelters, places formerly thought of as a dead end for
the unfortunate animals there?
Since 1979, Volunteer Services for Animals (VSA) has
assisted in municipal animal shelters in Rhode Island
cities and towns, providing adoption outreach services,
companionship and medical assistance to animals waiting
for new homes. Over the years, VSA helped improve
conditions and the standard of care at the shelters.
Most animal shelters now provide veterinary care for
sick animals, and inoculations against rabies and
distemper. VSA brought down the euthanasia rates by
promoting adoptions, but we have not yet eliminated
euthanasia of healthy, adoptable cats and dogs because
there are simply more homeless animals than there are
homes.
We haven't confined our efforts to the shelters! VSA
has reached out in our communities, assisting companion
animal owners with emergency veterinary bills and
spaying or neutering assistance. We advise and
support the efforts of people who want to rescue a stray
dog or cat, or want to help a feral (wild) cat.
Volunteer Services for Animals currently has chapters in
five communities: East Providence, Glocester,
Providence, Warwick and West Warwick. These Chapters
work tirelessly to provide whatever the animals in their
communities, and neighboring communities, need. We have
individual volunteers serving in many other Rhode Island
communities in their local shelters or providing foster
care services. At various times, VSA has had chapters
in Barrington, Bristol, Burrillville, Coventry,
Cranston, Lincoln, North Providence, North Smithfield,
Pawtucket, Scituate/Foster and Woonsocket.
VSA has established funds to assist in areas of the
state where there is no VSA chapter. We have the
Cranston Fund, the Lincoln/Blackstone Valley Fund and
the North Smithfield Fund. These funds provide
assistance for animals to qualifying applicants living
in those communities and the neighboring communities.
Other funds include the Feral/Stray Cat Fund which helps
cats in need throughout RI and the Chapters’ Spay/Neuter
Fund and the Chapters’ Emergency Veterinary Assistance
Fund, which help VSA Chapters provide spay/neuter
assistance and emergency veterinary assistance.
VSA’s Legislative Committee worked tirelessly over the
years to promote local and statewide legislation helpful
to animals. We helped pass legislation that all animals
adopted from municipal or private shelters must be
spayed or neutered. Last year, we collaborated with
other humane groups to ban the gas chamber in all
municipal and private animal shelters in Rhode Island.
Now shelter animals that don't get homes will be
euthanized humanely by a veterinarian, just as a sick
owned animal would. This year, we worked to pass much
needed mandatory spay/neuter for cats legislation. It
passed with bi-partisan support in both the House and
Senate, and was signed into law by the Governor in June
2006.
Going forward, we know we must focus on the severe
overpopulation of companion animals, especially cats.
We must educate the public about the tragic results of
not spaying and neutering companion animals, and we must
find the funding to assist people with the high cost of
this surgery. People must learn of the cruelty of
abandoning their pets in the streets when they move away
or have too many to care for. Local ordinances limiting
the number of animals a person can own, or making it
illegal to help a stray or abandoned animal will not
stop the overpopulation. We all know people who have
only the "correct" number of pets because they abandon
or give away all their unwanted litters of kittens and
pups. We also know people who have more animals than
the local ordinance allows because they rescue the
homeless ones; however, their animals are all well cared
for and spayed or neutered. They are not adding to pet
overpopulation and they are not a nuisance to the
neighbors because they are responsible pet
owners.
Another concern is the proliferation of "bully breed"
dogs, used in fighting by cruel and unscrupulous people.
Pounds are filled with dogs that are sweet and
trustworthy dogs who will never find a home because they
are tainted with the reputation of dogs that have been
misused by criminals. Bad people must be prevented
from owning these dogs, and we must restore these dog
breeds to their previous status as family pets. A few
reliable experts are now volunteering to evaluate the
temperaments of dogs in the shelters, and to provide
obedience training to unruly dogs of any breed. These
experts can help distinguish the trustworthy dogs from
the irretrievably damaged dogs, so that the trustworthy
ones have a chance at adoption.
VSA has worked very hard, and come a long way. To keep
moving forward, though, we need the support of animal
lovers and responsible citizens like you. You can help
by calling VSA for help if you know of an animal in
need, or by offering to volunteer in direct animal care,
or helping with office work, or at bake sales and other
events. If your time is limited, you can make a
donation to Volunteer Services for Animals, either to
provide funds for animals in need throughout Rhode
Island or to one of our chapters for their communities.
You can help VSA for many years into the future by
remembering us in your will. Your bequest will be spent
directly on programs for needy animals. For example, a
recent bequest to VSA helped animals in Pawtucket by
providing spay/neuter and emergency veterinary
assistance. Please contact VSA at 401-273-0358 for more
information on including Volunteer Services for Animals
in your estate.
Don't forget to view the animals on our website in a
shelter close to you before you leave us! We hope to
see you soon.
For a
humane Rhode Island,
Volunteer Services for Animals
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