2nd Chance - Charity for Animals

Today I was over in Dartmouth and I had some time to kill, so I stopped by the Harbourfront Market to do some shopping - and while I was there I stopped by the booth that I volunteer at - the "2nd Chance - Charity for Animals" booth. The person volunteering there today was none other than Angela Miller who runs the "TAPA" rescue "Take Action to Protect Animals Society" - they rescue feral and stray cats and kittens and adopt out the kittens and cats that are not feral and neuter and spay the ones who are feral and return them to a colony that can be maintained. They do fabulous work.

The absolutely fabulous thing about 2nd Chance Charity in the last six months and what Nancy Northcott has started doing - originally she just did fundraising for the SPCA and a couple other rescues - but in the last 6 months she has expanded it out to anyone who wants to spend time volunteering at the booth at the Harbourfront Market - it's a way they can raise money for their own rescue - which is such a great thing - so if you volunteer at the booth - your rescue will get some money.

It's win-win. Nancy gets volunteers, and the rescue gets money. When I volunteer the SPCA gets money, and when Angela volunteers her rescue gets money. It's an awesome idea.

While I was there today the fellow who owns the booth across from the 2nd Chance Charity booth did an amazing thing - he walked over and donated cash to us! Can you believe it? He said he'd had a good day and had sold quite a few blouses, so he wanted to give something back - so he gave us some cash.

I thought that was so nice. I hope he sells a lot of blouses before Christmas! haha! I know that the several times that I've volunteered there in the last few weeks by the end of my shift - the many times I've heard his sales pitch by the end of the day I've almost been convinced to go over and buy a blouse from him - and I am pretty much the furthest thing from a popcorn blouse woman that you'll ever find - so he is a pretty good salesman!

An interesting article came out this week about the NS SPCA from the CBC - it's a very refresing thing to see in light of other stories we're hearing about, but it's not surprising - the NS SPCA have been working hard towards this goal for awhile, and it's something I wrote about a couple months ago.

No-kill policy is working: SPCA

The no-kill policy adopted a year ago is resulting in more dog adoptions, the Nova Scotia SPCA says.

For decades, the agency euthanized thousands of animals at its shelters province-wide. The only animals that face euthanasia now are animals that are sick or aggressive.

That remains the case even when shelters are full, which is often, executive director Kristin Williams said.

"That's part of the no-kill equation … that we will not euthanize for space. That's not something that we consider anymore," Williams said.

What they do consider is the high demand for dogs in Halifax.

Sydney shelter manager Patsy Rose said the solution is a transfer system between communities. For example, twice a month, a staff member from Cape Breton meets with Halifax staff using an SPCA van.

"We put the dogs in that and they meet us in Antigonish and we transfer the animals from our vehicle to their vehicle and they drive back to Halifax with them and they find new homes for them," Rose said.

The no-kill policy also applies to cats, but since every shelter in the province is full, transferring them is not an option.