Philadelphia’s only open-intake shelter announces fee-waived adoptions all weekend to prepare for training by national shelter medicine experts
The Animal Care and Control Team of Philadelphia (ACCT Philly) is waiving all adoption fees starting Friday, Sept. 27 through Sunday, Sept. 29 as part of a new #ACCTtotheFuture adoption campaign.
Over the past year, ACCT Philly has faced several challenges. As an open-intake shelter, animals enter in all states of health, injury and behavior; and ACCT Philly works in partnership with its valued partners to save the vast majority of healthy and treatable animals. Despite the organization’s best efforts, the shelter has continued to operate at or above capacity for some time.
The city’s only open-intake shelter, ACCT takes in more than 18,000 animals annually and serves as both a stray animal holding facility and a pet adoption center. In order to conduct intensive staff training and make major changes to the shelter management procedures, ACCT Philly needs to drastically decrease the number of animals on-site and is asking the public to help by taking advantage of the fee-waived adoption event.
Following up from an initial assessment conducted by Cornell University, national shelter medicine expert Sandra Newbury DVM’03 and her team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine are providing consulting services on a pro bono basis. On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, the team will help ACCT Philly implement the recommendations from their assessment by conducting intensive training and technical assistance for staff.
This training will facilitate the implementation of procedures that will improve shelter operations and reduce the length of stay for animals and ensure that animals in ACCT Philly’s care receive top-level care and compassion. During this time, the shelter will be closed to the public except for emergencies.
“Our UW Shelter Medicine team is really excited to be part of helping ACCT Philly realize their goals to improve health and welfare for the animals,” said Newbury, director of the UW Shelter Medicine Program and assistant professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine.
“This is a big step in the right direction for the people and animals at the shelter,” said Adam Bates, Director of Operations for ACCT Philly.
Blake Martin, ACCT Philly