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In rain, sleet, snow, or shine Casey Newton loads up her car with kittens and dogs. She runs an Animal Rescue group called Friends Forever Animal rescue in Penneville.
Casey is bringing pets to be spayed and neutered for low income families who can’t afford it. It’s a service that’s become more challenging than ever before. That’s because a couple weeks ago, their transportation van broke down.
“It’s just dangerous for a rescue not to have the ability to pick up animals in need,” said Newton.
It’s forced volunteers to use their personal cars to bring animals to veterinary appointments, and many of them don’t have the space for it.
“We run clinics where we drop off anywhere from 13 to 25 cats per clinic, and a car can’t accommodate that many carriers,” said Newton.
The pandemic has the animal rescue fighting for more vet appointments, and now getting them there is a new challenge, not to mention they travel about an hour to get to the vet.
“It’s hard because, since you don’t have the vet appointments, you can’t get them fixed and then kitten season is not stopping,” said volunteer Jessica Sugamosto. “It usually slows down, and it doesn’t slow down for us.”
Staff say they get about 15 to 20 kittens a week and they have adopted out nearly 1,000 cats in the last year. The rescue van is crucial for Casey and her staff; without it, it seems they’ve lost one of their strongest team members.
“It’s not even just animals, too. You’ve got to think that we have to pick up supplies. When we go to the store, we’re not picking up two or three bags of cat litter; we’re picking up 100 or 200 bags of cat litter,” said Newton.
Animal rescues can always use more volunteers, but now Casey says she needs help more than ever. She’s hoping to find people willing to drive their cars or someone looking to give up a utility van.
Friends Forever Animal Rescue relies solely on community donations.
If you want to help, they are currently in need of bath mats, towels and blankets, as well as Purina One cat food, paper pellet litter, cat treats and rabbit food.
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