Animal shelter seeks your vote

Staff report

CANFIELD

Angels for Animals was in the top 40 of 93 other animal shelters nationwide competing for its share of $300,000 as part of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals $100k Challenge grant.

The challenge calls for people to vote for their favorite animal shelter. Of the 93, only 50 will be rewarded money ranging from $100,000 to $20,000 in November.

Voting closes at midnight Friday, and the ASPCA will announce the finalists Monday.

“It’s there to inspire people to improve their shelters,” Bert Troughton, an ASPCA vice president, said of the challenge.

In its second year, Troughton said the challenge motivated shelters around the country to improve living conditions for their animals last year.

Troughton said Angels for Animals was 39th out of 93 in voting as of late Tuesday.

People with more than one email address can vote once daily from each email address.

Cast votes at http:// challenge.aspcapro.org/vote-your-shelter.

Kate McDermott, the shelter’s general manager, said the grant would be placed “directly into the spay-and-neuter fund.” She said Angels for Animals will use the fund to assist low-income families with the procedures that cost between $200 and $250.

McDermott said Angels for Animals is currently at maximum capacity with 130 cats and 30 dogs. She said several other Mahoning Valley shelters are full.

Since the economic downturn, the shelter has seen an increase particularly in dogs. With families losing their homes to foreclosure and moving into apartments that don’t allow large pets, several are forced to drop off their dog at a shelter.

Diane Less, Angels for Animals co-founder, said when the shelter was incorporated in 1990, its mission was to provide low-cost spaying and neutering “to end the death and needless suffering of companion animals.”

But Less said it was hard to raise funds without an actual shelter. She described the shelter as a storefront to the true goal. “In reality ... adoption saves one life,” Less said. “Spaying and neutering, that will save thousands of lives.”

Less said Angels for Animals takes in about 8,000 animals a year and performed 6,600 procedures last year.

She said the last three years have been tough to raise money, but the shelter has been able to operate on a $1 million budget. She said comparable shelters elsewhere have much larger budgets.

“People don’t know just how labor intensive an operation this truly is,” Less said. “Everybody there works for free, including me.”

She added that she does pay some medical staff.