Brandywine Valley SPCA opens hurricane evacuation hub at Rescue & Rehab Center
The Brandywine Valley SPCA has announced it has opened its Rescue & Rehab Center early to serve as an evacuation hub for shelter animals displaced by Hurricane Florence. The first arrivals came from a BVSPCA deployment team sent to evacuate the Cumberland County Animal Services shelter in Fayetteville, N.C., in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society.
The Cumberland County shelter moved its more than 100 animals to the local fairgrounds due to threatening flood waters from local rivers. The BVSPCA deployed a team of six people and three vehicles to pick up the adoptable animals and relocate them to the Rescue & Rehab Center.
The BVSPCA team is intaking and evaluating the animals. Intake and animal care will be performed by BVSPCA staff and volunteers with assistance from Delaware Animal Response volunteers. The animals will move to other partners in the Best Friends network to be adopted, including several shelters in Delaware and the Philadelphia area.
This intake will be the first in what is expected to be several weeks of work at the Rescue & Rehab Center. Many shelters in North Carolina are experiencing flooding, and others need to move out their adoptable animals to make room for rescued family pets. (All pets relocated from North Carolina to the BVSPCA Rescue & Rehab Center will be adoptable animals. No stray animals or family pets will be removed from their local area through this initiative.)
The BVSPCA purchased the Rescue & Rehab Center June 9 at auction and coincidentally closed on the property this week. The 11,500-square-foot facility sits on 13 acres on Shingle Point Road in Georgetown. Depending on the progress of fundraising to complete repairs and renovations, the center should open early next year. In the meantime, the facility has sufficient infrastructure to serve this emergency purpose.
“As soon as the risk to shelters in the Carolinas became apparent, we moved into high gear to secure supplies and prepare the Rescue & Rehab Center,” said Adam Lamb, BVSPCA chief executive officer. “We purchased the facility in part for needs exactly like this, and we’re proud to be chosen by Best Friends to join the leadership team saving lives following Hurricane Florence.”
“Best Friends Animal Society is extremely grateful to the Brandywine Valley SPCA for stepping up and providing leadership and expertise to help animals in the Carolinas through this extremely difficult and trying ordeal,” said Mark Peralta, Best Friends Animal Society senior director of National No-kill Advancement. “Brandywine is the perfect partner to bring much-needed supplies down to the Carolinas, provide leadership and organization for groups we are looking to help while continuing pulling up shelter animals who are ready for adoption to make room for displaced animals looking for their owners and alleviate some of the stress on organizations who were ravaged by hurricane Florence.”
The public can assist in this important rescue work in several ways:
• Donate to support the significant cost of opening the Rescue & Rehab Center early to care for displaced animals, and to complete the facility repairs and renovations in progress: www.bvspca.org/hurricanehub
• Adopt an animal from a BVSPCA location to make space for hurricane victims: www.bvspca.org/adopt
• Sign up to foster pets identified during intake to need a bridge to be ready for adoption: www.bvspca.org/foster.
Founded in 1929, the Brandywine Valley SPCA is the first open admission no-kill shelter in Pennsylvania and Delaware. In 2017, the BVSPCA cared for more than 14,000 stray, owner-surrendered, wayward owned, and abused and neglected animals while achieving a 96 percent live release rate. The BVSPCA provides animal protective services for Chester County and much of Delaware County in Pennsylvania, and it holds a five-year contract with the Delaware Office of Animal Welfare to provide statewide animal services for dogs. Animals are placed through four adoption centers: the West Chester Campus, the New Castle Campus, the Georgetown Campus, and a PetSmart® Everyday Adoption Center in Dover. In addition, the BVSPCA provides families with safety net and low-cost veterinary services at its three clinic locations: the Malvern Animal Health Center, the New Castle Animal Health Center, and the Georgetown Animal Health Center. www.bvspca.org.
