Sidra Omer February 12, 2007

Tags: animals , animal shelter

href="/tag/1971">1971. It is Arizona’s oldest and largest no-kill shelter that rescues animals and provides them with needed services. All the animals are domesticated and are taken from the euthanasia lists of Maricopa County Animal Care and Control or the Arizona Humane Society.

Paige Maximovitch, 38, from Phoenix, and a handful of other volunteers spent three hours of their early Sunday morning last week at the AAWL shelter.
Employees and volunteers at the shelter were interviewed to find out, and highlight, what work is being done in the community to care for unwanted dogs and cats.

“There’s most certainly a need for folks to volunteer with animals,” said Maximovitch as the volunteers sterilized the cat cages, cleaned the shelter, fed, bathed, primed and pampered the cats.

Although the shelter gets volunteers daily, Maximovitch and the others found out about volunteering there through Make A Difference, a 501-c3 non-profit organization established in 1993. Make A Difference holds one-day volunteer programs at the shelter known as Kitty Kare Days. The project leader of Kitty Kare Days is 25-years-old Sarah Kelly who has been working with Make A Difference since June 2005. “Every time I’ve thrown this project I’ve had 2-3 volunteers on the average,” said Kelly.

This is the third time that Sheeba Bedi, 39 from Ahwatukee and her 9-years-old daughter Malika are volunteering at this shelter. “My daughter loves animals, so this is my way of trying to channel her love and let her realize that it has to be selfless,” said Bedi who had been looking for something that would let the family volunteer together. “Just the fact that my daughter can volunteer here with me makes all the difference.”

Stephanie Hicks, 26, a graduate student of the Hugh Downs School Of Communication at ASU works at the shelter as an adoption counselor. While adopting a pet from the shelter, Hicks also found her ideal job. “I was transitioning from the corporate world, and I wanted to do something that was closer to my heart.”

AAWL runs on donations with an operating budget of approximately $1.2 million per year. Currently there are 40 cats and 12 dogs awaiting adoption. “The numbers jump in the summer,” said Joy Talmon, 28, the Animal Care Manager. “Around then we have about 200 cats and 60 dogs.”

On average, there are 2,400 adoptions per year from the shelter. The adoption fee is $65 for cats 7 years and older, $95 for regular cats, and $129 for kittens and pure breeds.

“You’d think that with so many cats and dogs at shelters waiting to be adopted, people would stop buying kittens and puppies from pet shops,” said volunteer Timothy Kwok, 23, a substitute teacher for the Mesa Public Schools district. “At shelters they have a formal adoption process. Pet stores often sell you animals without making sure you know the responsibilities that come with it.”

Three cats who have been at the shelter for a year now are Baxter, male, 11-years-old, black; Star, female, torti colored, in foster care; and Beulah, female, grey-brown shorthair.

“All of them, they just wanna love on you,” said Maximovitch as she dusted out a towel and wrapped up for the day.

One is hopeful that in the not so distant future somebody will start a small shelter for the miserably wretched strays in Pakistan that the government and benefactors will support so that people can volunteer at it and adopt strays instead of breeding, selling and buying pedigrees as a social status and as a business.