Perlak takes over Delaware SPCA
Andrea Perlak says it's time to reinvent the Delaware SPCA, and as its new executive director, that's what she's doing.
“It’s truly a different place than it was a couple years ago,” she said.
Before taking the job, Perlak worked at the World Bank. With a shuffle of people coming in and out as executive director for nearly two years, Perlak said, customer service had fallen off, with sometimes no one around to answer the phone.
A CPA, Perlak started her career working with nonprofits such as Washington National Cathedral and NPR, and she was ready to go back. While it may seem strange for someone with a banking background to take on an animal shelter, Perlak said other animal shelters have hired people with business experience.
Perlak runs Delaware SPCA’s two shelters: one in Newark and one in Georgetown. She said her goal is to increase adoptions, decrease the total number of animals, and improve customer service and cleanliness.
The Georgetown shelter has 92 cats and 37 dogs. Perlak said adoptions have doubled this month from 50 to 103 - many of them kittens.
“People want animals that are at the baby stage,” she said. “The first thing we have done is find a pediatric specialty. We took 100 kittens and got them spayed and neutered, and they were out like that.”
Perlak said a new vet was set to come Sept. 18 to work at both the Georgetown and New Castle shelters, and additional staff has been hired to help with front desk work, branding and fundraising.
Perlak emphasized that Delaware SPCA is a no-kill shelter with euthanasia only in the case of animals that are severely ill or have extreme behavior issues.
“We assess them. We work with them. We try to figure out how to fix this animal,” Perlak said. “We never, ever euthanize for space.”
After the closure of Safe Haven 10 months ago, one of the jobs of the Delaware SPCA was to help restore the community’s faith in animal shelters.
“When it failed, that’s when it was so disheartening to people,” shelter Operations Manager Bonnie Madonna said. “When it failed, it was like someone burst a bubble.”
Perlak said Delaware SPCA pulled many dogs out of Safe Haven; the last dog, Tonka, was recently adopted.
Delaware SPCA has begun hosting cat adoptions on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, events Madonna calls “crazy cat day.”
“The parking lot is full. The lobby is full. We service a lot of people on that day,” she said.
Perlak said her five-year goal is to turn the Georgetown shelter into a full-service destination where pets can be groomed, boarded, adopted, trained and treated.
“When you think of a full-service animal shelter, you think of us,” she said.
For more information on adopting a pet, call 302-856-6361 or go to www.delspca.org.
