City of Rochester
News Release
(Friday, June 23, 2017) – Mayor Lovely Warren today announced that Rochester Animal Services has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Petco Foundation to support its pet adoption program.
“We are very proud of the work the staff and volunteers at Rochester Animal Services and the Verona Street Animal Society do every day and we are grateful to the Petco Foundation for all the good this grant will do,” said Mayor Warren. “Caring for our animals, aiding pet owners and providing for easier adoptions helps us achieve safer and more vibrant neighborhoods which leads to more jobs and better educational opportunities for our residents.”
Rochester Animal Services is the City of Rochester’s municipal animal care and control agency. During the current fiscal year, Rochester Animal Services provided shelter for nearly 3,000 cats and dogs with a save rate of 89.7%. Stray and surrendered pets are temporarily housed at the shelter, which also serves as a pet lost-and-found resource, pet adoption center and low-cost spay and neuter clinic.
The Petco Foundation investment will help support fee-waived adoption events this summer at the Animal Services Center. Free adoptions are an effective marketing strategy to stimulate pet adoptions from shelters. Studies have shown no difference in the attachments formed by pet owners regardless of whether a fee was paid or not.
The Animal Services Center is open to the public 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday (with extended hours on Wednesday until 7:30 p.m.), and is closed Sundays and select holidays. For more information on adoptions, spay and neuter, community outreach or volunteering, visit www.rochesteranimalservices.com or email AnimalServices@cityofrochester.gov. For more information about the Petco Foundation, visit www.petcofoundation.org. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or by using the hashtag #PetcoFoundation.
Rochester Animal Services provides information, assistance, and pet re-homing for the Rochester community to support pet retention and encourage compliance in order to help people and animals. The Verona Street Animal Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and providing the resources necessary to enable Rochester Animal Services to more effectively serve the public need for animal care and control, pet sterilization, and animal adoption services and, in cooperation with the City of Rochester, to support the mission of Rochester Animal Services. For more information about the Verona Street Animal Society visit www.vsas.org or www.Facebook.com/VeronaStAnimalSociety.
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News Media: For more information, contact Chris Fitzgerald, Director of Animal Services, at 428-7274 or chris.fitzgerald@cityofrochester.gov