Dear friends,
As Second Chance Pet Adoptions continues to evaluate the best way to use the bequest that Robin Gager (pictured here) generously left us after her passing (learn more HERE), we feel it’s important to keep our supporters aware of where we are in the process of determining how to make an impact (see the prior update HERE).
Second Chance is now in its 35th year, and as we celebrate our longevity, we also face challenges unique to living in a pandemic-affected world with supply chain issues, inflation, rising gas prices, and other obstacles that make the already-difficult task of rescuing animals even harder. Through the decades, our organization has survived a litany of hurdles with the help of our community, and each year we help more and more animals through rescue, adoption, and spay/neuter.
We’re poised to continue growing, and as always, the Board of Directors has a responsibility to ensure that our goals are achievable and sustainable. Because we take our commitment to the animals, our staff, our volunteers, and our sponsors and donors seriously, we have taken our program evaluations seriously as well. Though this process has taken longer than anticipated, we feel there is no substitute for “doing our homework” before we move forward with spending. We appreciate everyone’s patience and are ready to share the ways in which our vision is beginning to crystallize, particularly with #2 below:
1. As we’ve assessed our adoption and transport programs, as well as our fundraising and outreach efforts, it’s been reaffirmed that Second Chance (though having some full-time staff members) is a volunteer-driven organization. The humans who donate their time to the animals have served as the foundation for all that we do and are able to achieve.
In order to recruit and retain all the volunteers who help us save and change animals’ lives—as well as to show them the amount of gratitude we feel on a regular basis—it became clear we needed to create a new role at Second Chance, funded by the bequest: Volunteer Manager.
Alex Barker joined the team in February 2022 and hit the ground running!
2. While finding forever homes for animals in need has always been our primary mission and is a vital part of ending animal homelessness, it cannot be overstated how critical it is to spay and neuter animals before they reproduce unwanted puppies and kittens. We ensure each animal in our program is spayed/neutered before adoption and, in recent years, have begun funding the spay/neuter surgeries for feral and unowned cats and dogs, as well as those with low-income guardians. The Board of Directors is now committed to issuing a significant disbursement from the bequest to spay/neuter thousands more animals (particularly community cats but also animals in low-income households) each year for several years at minimum; discussions have begun with potential partners in the community to determine the best way to spay/neuter the largest number of animals possible with these funds.
3. Second Chance has in no way been immune to the economic challenges each of us is facing individually. Caring for the animals is more expensive now; over the past year, the average cat’s care has increased by 35% and the average dog’s care has increased by 69%. We’ve undertaken an in-depth analysis of the contributors to these cost increases.
We remain strongly aligned with our mission to help both healthy and treatable animals and our operations are focused on finding the best options to manage our costs while continuing to provide quality care for all of the cats and dogs who need us.
4. As you’ve seen if you’ve visited the adoption center recently—or as you might imagine when we discuss our growth from 311 animals transported and adopted in 2011 to 887 in 2021—our space at the adoption center is stretched to capacity. Over the last couple of months, then, we’ve been focused on the question of whether to expand or move our facility. We’ve initiated a collaboration with a commercial agent to address our current space challenges.
Ultimately, we’ve surmised that finding similar space would be very difficult and likely very costly given the current real estate market. There is an undersupply of suitable space in the Raleigh area, and where there is space near our current location, it is expensive. Our adoption center has been located within the Tanager Center for 20 years; our volunteer base has developed around this location and it’s easily accessible to the public. As such, while we haven’t ruled out buying property for future construction and will keep an eye on local listings, our efforts are now focused on optimizing our current space and remaining there for years to come.
In conclusion, while strengthening the foundation of Second Chance has been our top priority so we can joyfully celebrate 40th, 45th, and 50th anniversaries, we continue to evaluate the options of interest outlined in the prior update, those being:
1) expanding community spay/neuter capacity (primary at this time),
2) increasing our support for stray kittens,
3) growing our dog transport program, and
4) improving, or perhaps ultimately moving, our facility.
Second Chance Pet Adoptions is a vital member of the animal rescue community, serving the needs of stray and abandoned cats and dogs, unowned feral animals, and pet parents. Our standing is a reflection of the impact each and every one of you has made by contributing to our organization with your time, money, and love. For that, we thank you, and we look forward to sharing the outcome of this evaluation with you, our partners in rescue, soon.
Sincerely,
Dave Ballesteros
President
Board of Directors
Second Chance Pet Adoptions
