NORWICH – On Saturday, April 7 from 4:30 P.M. to 7 p.m. at the Norwich VFW, pet owners and supporters from a 50-mile radius will come to have a delicious meal and bid on over 70 items donated by local businesses and friends. The date this year for the dinner has been changed due to the weather and conflicts with other important events in the area.
Funds received from the dinner will be added to the Krista L. Bartle, "4 Paws Friends Fund", in memory of the Oxford woman who passed away suddenly in 2011 and had a great love for animals. The fund provides assistance to owners of domestic cats and dogs and helps owners defray the cost of spaying and neutering. Monies are also allocated to assist in emergency veterinarian medical care of animals who sustained injuries or unexpectedly have a serious issue. Although AAM helps many low income families, the increase for help has no boundaries. Every request or situation takes time and requires a determination as to how much AAM can help. For the past three years, AAM has worked with Compassionate Care Veterinary in Norwich , Valley Vet in Unadilla and Delaware Valley Humane Society in Sidney to help with emergency medical expenses and spaying and neutering for adoptable pets.
Our veterinarian practice of choice is Compassionate Care Veterinary in Norwich. Pet owners will travel quite a distance to get their pet "fixed" at CCV because of the excellent service and cost. AAM hosts several community Spay and Neuter-a-thons in partnership with CCV. The vet practice has performed nine spay/neuter-a-thons in the past two years. Individual pet owners have to come up with something to pay for the service and AAM will match the amount. These events take a lot of planning, but are truly worth it. Overnight stay, surgery, and more is included in the price with no extra fees added on to the pet owner or AAM.
AAM will do a TNR (trap neuter release) for cats in 2018. This is for cats that usually live in colonies and have a caretaker. One of the dilemmas with spaying and neutering feral cats is it takes many hours of catching and transporting. The cats are usually difficult to work with and there are many other risks. But we will have at least one surgery day this year, and it is really up to the vet practice as to when it will be done. Experienced volunteers are necessary, so if you can help please contact us.
It is our hope that local shelters and rescues will follow our lead and have spay/neuter athons as we have had for several years.
We continue to operate our 501c3 organization from generous grants like the Frances and Elizabeth Brisson Macksey Charitable Trust Fund, the Dorothy and Fred Hamilton Foundation and the Goldstein Foundation. Several years ago, AAM was bequeathed funding from the late Oxford Historian, Charlotte Stafford; money left in her cats memory.
