For those who may not know, tell us a little bit about your organization.
Rochester Animal Services (RAS) is a municipal animal care and control organization whose mission is to provide information, assistance, pet re-unification and pet re-homing for the Rochester community to facilitate pet retention, encourage compliance, and support healthy choices for pet owners.
Verona Street Animal Society is a 501c sister organization to Rochester Animal Services and helps support its mission through services, donations and events.
What’s something you wish the community knew about your organization that they may not know?
Rochester Animal Services takes in over 6,000 animals a year – that’s A LOT of wonderful animals in need of care and rehoming!
What’s currently on your organizations wish list?
Um, a better question is what’s NOT on our wish list! But we break out our wish list by areas of need: Animal Care (such as 6-foot leashes, Easy Walk Harnesses, Training Crates), Clinic (such as Pet ear thermometers, Distilled water, cotton swabs), Community Outreach (Pet food-unopened, Dog runners, Dog House kits), Enrichment (Nylon bones, puzzle feeders, enrichment toys), Transfer & Transportation (Gas cards/prepaid cards for volunteers to transport animals, Cat litter, Pet carriers), Behavior (Canned dog food, bully sticks) and miscellaneous (Brooms, Laundry baskets, plastic storage bins with lids). See the link below for a complete list by area.
What is the impact a donation makes on the people you serve?
100% of donations made to Verona Street Animal Society go directly to support the animals. So how much difference does a dog house make during outreach to an outdoor dog…it literally can mean the difference between life and death.
How can young professionals get involved?
We have a ton of ways to help the animals! You can volunteer at Rochester Animal Services and walk, feed, train, socialize the animals! You can support the shelter with your talents – Verona Street Animal Society is a 100% volunteer run organization, so we need events, marketing, fundraising and a whole slew of skills to keep this organization going! Just shoot us an email at vsasinc@gmail.com