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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – American Humane Association’s renowned Red Star® Animal Emergency Services team rushed to Helmetta, New Jersey at the request of the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA) to help animals in terrible need. The deployment was made possible by Red Star presenting sponsor MARS Petcare US, makers of PEDIGREE® Food for Dogs.
More than 100 cats and dogs were found in deplorable conditions and the local borough council approved a temporary takeover of the shelter following alarming reports of conditions at the shelter. The animal shelter was quarantined for adoptions after the local health department found unsanitary conditions. A recent letter from the SPCA to town officials leveled serious allegations against the shelter, saying, “Simple matters such as who has access to the facility, the lack of cleaning of cages, basic feeding, the co-mingling of sick and healthy animals, insufficient veterinary care, the lack of disease control protocols, the majority of the animals thin or emaciated, the need for emergency vet care of some severely sick animals, are all of a very disturbing nature and require immediate action.”
“It’s a very serious situation,” said American Humane Association National Director of Humane Intervention & Emergency Services Justin Scally. “These animals need rehabilitation and medical care, and the way this shelter operates needs to be overhauled. We’re just glad to get our Red Star team here so we can begin helping these animals.”
50 feet of hope arrives
In addition to its trained team of Red Star volunteers, American Humane Association sent its 50-foot long northeast Lois Pope Red Star Rescue Vehicle. This newest member of the Red Star rescue fleet, sponsored by Banfield Pet Hospital(R), is specifically designed and outfitted to provide a wide array of emergency services and is staffed by certified and specially trained responders, carrying supplies and equipment to shelter animals. The vehicle is based in New Jersey and is dedicated to the region so it may respond to emergencies quickly in the entire Northeast area. This is the second time this year that American Humane Association’s Red Star team has deployed to assist in a shelter rescue case in New Jersey. In January and February, the Red Star team was on the ground assisting the New Jersey SPCA with a response to help some 200 animals at a shelter that lost its way. The team did everything from cleaning and disinfecting all areas of the facility to walking dogs and helping to start the shelter animals on the road to their new lives – as a member of a loving family.
“Our hearts go out to these animals and we will do whatever we can to help them,” said Dr. Robin Ganzert, president and CEO of American Humane Association. “Thanks to our supporters, philanthropist Lois Pope, MARS Petcare US, makers of PEDIGREE® Food for Dogs, Banfield Pet Hospital, Zoetis, and other major donors who helped fund the Northeast truck used in this deployment, we are able to come to the aid of our nation’s most vulnerable animals in their times of greatest need.”
American Humane Association’s Red Star program was created in 1916 at the request of the U.S. Secretary of War to rescue wounded war horses on the battlefields of World War I in Europe. Since then, Red Star has been rescuing animals of every kind and has been involved in virtually every major disaster relief effort from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Joplin, Missouri and Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes, the Japanese and Haitian earthquakes, and Superstorm Sandy. Over just the past ten years Red Star teams have saved, helped and sheltered more than 80,000 animals.
To follow the news and support the Red Star team’s emergency work, please visitwww.americanhumane.org