June Positive Change Recipient – SPCA of Tompkins County
A Note from GreenStar: SPCA of Tompkins County was selected by GreenStar members to be among our twelve 2024 Partners for Change. SPCA is the June Positive Change recipient.
For 122 years, the SPCA of Tompkins County has been saving animals.
The SPCA was incorporated in 1902 to end cruelty to animals, including farm animals, and to provide safe shelter to the unwanted, abandoned, and homeless animals of Tompkins County.
Today, our mission of the SPCA of Tompkins County is to protect companion animals.
In 2001, we became a no-kill shelter dedicated to preventing animal cruelty and overpopulation. That year we had a live release rate of 100% of healthy dogs and cats for the first time in more than 100 years. In 2002, we became the first shelter in the nation to have another 100% live release rate. Since then, we have had a live release rate of greater than 90%, and in recent years, typically 93+%.
Twenty years ago, in 2004, the SPCA opened the Dorothy & Roy Park Pet Adoption Center, a state-of-the-art sheltering facility that provides dogs and cats with comfortable home-like settings, access to natural light, and health-promoting independent air systems. Situated on 12 acres, the Adoption Center also has two surgery suites and an array of training and play spaces. Registered as the nation’s first LEED Certified “green” animal shelter by the U.S. Green Building Council for its environmental emphasis, earth-friendly adaptations, and sustainable design, the facility is “good for people, good for animals, and good for the planet.” In 2014, in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the Park Adoption Center, a large roof mounted solar array (before this was widely adopted) was added (the Swanson Array) to continue this commitment to environmentally friendly and sustainable animal sheltering.
Presently, the SPCA provides animal control services (dog control) to 7 of our 10 local municipalities in Tompkins County. Our two Animal Control Officers receive and investigate nearly 1500 calls of suspected abuse or neglect every year.
The SPCA provides the only low cost spay and neuter program locally and each year our clinic partner staff perform nearly 1,400 spay and neuter surgeries for low-income members of our community at 47 clinics. Clients come from Tompkins County and 17 neighboring counties, who, without our help, would struggle to afford this critical component in reducing pet overpopulation.
We help with feral cats. Between 2015 and 2023, a total of 2,531 feral cats were spayed or neutered by the SPCA and our S/N clinic partners. Cats are trapped, brought to the SPCA for surgery, given rabies and distemper vaccinations, ear-tipped, and tattooed at the surgical site.
Currently, the SPCA takes in close to 1,500 animals each year. In 2023, 55 dogs were brought to the shelter on transports from the south, and 259 stray cats and dogs were reunited with their owners!
In 2023, 196 foster families cared for 499 kittens and puppies in their homes when they were too young to be at the shelter.
The SPCA staff, along with more than 300 volunteers, rehabilitate, train, and care for shelter animals keeping them safe, happy, and socialized until they find their new forever homes. Volunteer roles include working with cats, dogs, adoptions, medical, and facilities staff.
To learn more about us and be kept up to date on our work, please like the SPCA of Tompkins County on
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/spcaoftompkinscounty,)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/spcaoftompkinscounty/) or
X (Twitter) (https://x.com/SPCAofTC).