LI Animal Shelter Heads To Texas To Help Pets Affected By Crisis

PATCHOGUE, NY —As the crisis in Texas unfolds, with freezing temperatures, lack of water and power and displaced people, pets are also in need. Rebecca Herlihy is the outreach coordinator for Almost Home Animal Rescue in Patchogue and she tells Patch local Texas shelters are "in desperate need" of assistance.

The not-for-profit no-kill shelter has an outreach program called Training Wheels that serves low-income areas on Long Island. Staff and volunteers deliver cat and dog food and medical supplies to families in need, providing no-cost spaying and neutering and medical services for pets. They also take in abandoned and surrendered pets for adoption.

The work is all funded by donations and over the years, when natural disasters like hurricanes have hit other areas, the group has sent help. After Hurricane Florence in North Carolina, volunteers headed to shelters needing assistance, and ultimately brought back ten dogs to be adopted on Long Island.

On Thursday, four staffers and volunteers will make the 24-hour drive to the Forth Worth, Texas area bringing water, food, bedding and medical supplies. Herlihy says what exactly they will find is a mystery.

"It depends what situations we see, if we see abandoned animals, boxes of puppies...we don't know what we are going to see."

The Long Islanders will help two overcrowded Texas shelters, and evaluate dogs that may make the trip back to Long Island, where they will be fully examined and spayed and neutered. After seven days the pets would then become eligible for adoption.

The group will spend two days in Texas. Other national animal rescue groups have been working to help animals affected in Texas, and some have issued advice to leave out blankets and towels to allow displaced animals a warm place to stay.

"When we saw what happened we felt compelled to go and help," Herlihy explains.

Almost Home Animal Rescue is operating by appointment-only for prospective adoptions during the pandemic, but even so, Herlihy says they are seeing a steady stream of Long Islanders coming in to adopt.