Description
Our Mission
To improve the quality of life for both the companion animals and the people of our community by providing shelter and placement for homeless animals and support through community services and education.
What Drives Us
The epidemic of unwanted and homeless pets in the United States.Millions of pets are euthanized each year because, quite simply, there are not enough homes for them. This unfortunate situation is referred to as "pet overpopulation" and there are numerous reasons for the problem including economic conditions, uninformed pet owners, and irresponsible and unintended pet breeding.
What We Believe
At the Scituate Animal Shelter, we don’t euthanize for space or length of stay. We strive to make a positive impact on animal welfare in our community through thoughtful placement of stray and unwanted animals in loving, permanent homes, offering services that promote the health and well being of companion animals and the people who care for them, and educating adopters and the public about pet overpopulation, proper pet care and handling, and the prevention of animal cruelty.
Our Vision
At the Scituate Animal Shelter, we are working toward a time when every adoptable pet has a proper, loving home.
Since our inception in 1992, more than 5,000 dogs, cats, rabbits, hedgehogs, ferrets, birds, guinea pigs, gerbils and hamsters have passed through our doors and been adopted into loving homes.
Our Strategies
We provide a safe and healthy environment and promote programs for transitioning companion animals in our community, including.
- Adoption Services. We provide careful placement of adoptable animals in appropriate forever homes
- Surrender Services. We evaluate and accept adoptable animals from members of the community who feel they can no longer provide adequate care
- Networking with overcrowded animal control facilities and shelters within the state of Massachusetts. We evaluate and accept transfers of adoptable animals from facilities who cannot otherwise provide appropriate placement services. We also provide temporary housing for animals who are being transferred to specialized placement programs from other facilities
- Humane treatment of all animals. We lead by example with our exceptional care and positive training programs
Serve
We operate and facilitate many accessible, affordable community programs, including:
- The Mary Hooper ELder Pet Care (HELP) Program, providing home delivery of pet food and supplies to qualified individuals to allow them to keep and care for their pets
- Loretta’s Fund (named in memory of Shelter founder, Loretta Darian) providing financial assistance to qualified Scituate residents for spaying or neutering their pets.
- Immunization Clinics
- Population Control
- Spaying or neutering all our adoptable animals prior to placing them for adoption
- Assisting the public with trapping, neutering and vaccinating free-roaming, feral cats through our Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program
- Periodically hosting the Spay Waggin’, providing affordable spay/neuter procedures to owned and free-roaming cats
Educate
We have reached over 4,000 school children and countless adults in Massachusetts through classroom visits, guided group tours of the Shelter and counseling of potential adopters and current pet owners. We promote responsible pet ownership through several initiatives, including:
- In-school programs directed at developing next generation of responsible pet owners
- Pre-arranged in-Shelter tours for small groups
- Adoption counseling
