E
stablished in 1984, Animal Advocates
is a nonprofit, all-volunteer,
Pittsburgh-based animal welfare
organization involved in the rescue and
permanent placement of cats and dogs that
are in need of finding new homes.
“We basically started off as an animal
rights organization,” said Animal Advocates
president and original volunteer for the group,
Patricia Murphy. “We mostly got involved in
campaign activities, letter writing, picketing
and the like. As we grew, the volunteers who
joined us wanted to do more [animal] rescue
work, so we started moving in that direction.”
As their visibility grew, so did the numbers
of people who wanted to help Animal
Advocates achieve its goals. Volunteers
solicited donations from private donors as
well as the public, and, in 1990, six years into
their mission, Animal Advocates bought a
home to call their own.
What separates Animal Advocates from
larger animal shelter counterparts is that
Animal Advocates does not run a formal
shelter. All the animals available for adoption
are in the care of foster families, who lovingly
look after their needs until suitable homes are
found. The building, which houses several
“AdvoCats” doted upon by volunteers, is
averaging over 200 animals a year being
placed into loving, caring homes,” Murphy
said. “It’s hard to say how many we’ve saved
overall, going back as far as we do, but it’s
significant.”
For those who aren’t familiar with the
fostering concept, volunteer fosters enlist
to host an animal, or animals if the animals
get along and the situation is appropriate, in
their homes until a permanent family can be
found. The volunteers shoulder the cost of
food and boarding while the animal is in their
care. Food costs are reimbursed by the group
and all medical costs are covered by Animal
Advocates as well until they are adopted. The
benefits to the animal are numerous.
For one, a fostered animal doesn’t go
through the stresses of being in a kennel
environment, where dogs that have been
kenneled for months on end have the
potential of going “cage crazy,” a physical and
mental state of simply giving up. Dogs will
retreat to the rear of their cages, no longer
greet visitors at the front of the cage, and
remain listless or seem depressed. Fostered
animals also have a safer health environment.
While kennels are prone to infectious diseases
such as parvo, kennel cough and feline URI,
the risk of fostered animals being exposed to
Animal Advocates doesn’t discriminate against breed, age
or health. It has rescued senior pets and found them homes
where they can live out their golden years, and rescued pets
that are cancer survivors whose owners abandoned them.
used strictly as a fundraising vehicle for the
organization as resale shop, where donated
goods are sold at discount to fund the group.
“Everyone involved with us is a volunteer,”
Murphy said. “We’re a working board [of
directors]. We’re not figureheads. Everything
is volunteer-driven. No one is paid anything,
and our resale shop is one of our main
funding sources.”
While being a totally volunteer-driven
organization has its advantages as far as saving
on overhead and administrative fees, it also
has its setbacks in that Animal Advocates can
only handle as much traffic as its volunteer
pool can provide.
The numbers are nothing to sneeze at,
but, Murphy laments, if there were more
volunteers willing to be fosters for pets and
working in the shop, caring for in-house
AdvoCats, more cats and dogs could be saved
each year.
“In 2013, we placed 140 dogs alone and
spent over $60,000 on veterinary services.
When you add cats into the mix, we’re
those ailments is greatly reduced in a foster
care environment.
Just like its larger kennel brethren, Animal
Advocates ensures that your new pet is spayed
or neutered, current on its shots and tagged
with a subcutaneous microchip so that the pet
can be identified and traced back to its owner
should it run away or get lost inadvertently.
Volunteers also, like larger animal welfare
organizations, save animals from out of state
when they can, rescuing dogs from rural
shelters in Ohi