363 Derby Road
Middletown, NY, 10940

(845) 386-9738
– Dog Team: Ext. 2
– Cat Team:  Ext. 3

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Daily: 10 am – 4 pm (EST)

info@petsalive.org

So Best Friends said this, in the recent backlash they are getting over Oreo’s Law:

>>In 2007, Best Friends rescued a failed and dilapidated Pets Alive sanctuary by investing over a million dollars and 8 months of a rotating cadre of Best Friends staff to get the organization back on its feet. Best Friends has spent millions of dollars and countless hours of staff and volunteer time in the past few years bailing out or cleaning up after 501c3s and rescues that have gotten in over their head with animals they can’t handle. These include Pets Alive, Gabbs, Nevada, FLOCK in Las Vegas, Oasis Sanctuary in New York….
…In fact, a number of dogs from Pets Alive, to whom the current management did not feel they could do justice, and who had languished there in squalid conditions prior to our intervention in 2007, were taken in at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah.<<

jackYes, Best Friends, this is true. Well MOST of it. It wasn’t a million dollars you spent here. We know, because we got the bill from you that your past CEO, Paul Berry eventually waived, when he saw how great we were doing and how we would become a force for animals in this area. That bill, before it was waived, was just under $500,000. A minor point, but please, no need to inflate it. Let’s stick to the facts here. We have not bad mouthed you or beaten you up – in fact when people were saying they were going to withdraw support from you, we said “DON’T DO THAT”!  We have stressed how we disagree with your opinion on being neutral about this and how critical we needed your support on this bill. That’s it. Others have run with it and it has gone viral but to attack us isn’t really necessary. We didn’t…we COULD. Remember all the things that happened in those eight months? Ouch. We all know each others secrets, don’t we? Secrets that are better left between us, yes?
WE – Pets Alive – don’t really have any secrets. Our bad history has been all over the web (and we include it on our website). In fact, we make no secret about it at all – I am the one that called you when I saw Pets Alive, and how bad it was. I was the one that personally begged you to come down and save all the animals. WE, the people here now, are NOT the people that were here THEN when the situation was so bad. YOU put us here, YOU trained us, WE are YOU. We follow all your protocols, and all your job descriptions and indeed use YOUR adoption contract, and YOUR surrender forms, and your hiring methods – we are you. We are what you trained us to be. And you trained us to always be on the side of animals and speak out and help where we see wrong.

That is what we have done here…when we tried to save Oreo. When we try to save animals from other shelters that will kill them, if there is any way that we can help.
But most of all…we do what you asked us to do. What your former CEO’s (Michael Mountain and Paul Berry) asked us to do when they left. They said “We will absolve your debt to us. Instead pay it forward. Help other rescues like we helped you. Help animals. Be the GOOD in the world. Be the change. Do what you can to make things better for animals in your neck of the woods.”
I get up every single day with that intent, and that goal, and I take that promise that we made to you very seriously. We have done that. We did what you asked. Let me give you a little summary.

  • We have helped make FOUR shelters no-kill. We take in their over-flow, we help them develop programs, we help them by inviting them to our adoption events, or putting their animals on our petfinder or by directing our people to them. How many animals have they now saved as a result? How many less have died as a result of what happened with Pets Alive? We ask them what you asked of us – Pay it Forward. Help others. And they do. How many more will THEY then help and so on? So was your dropping half a mil here a waste? Do you regret it? Let’s look….
  • We have adopted out over 1000 animals from our own site every year since you left. That is over 2300 animals right from here. 2300 that have lived as a result of us being here.
  • We have saved countless numbers of others by putting them in touch with OUR adopters when we don’t have a dog or cat to match what they are looking for – we help them find that animal in a local (or even NON local) shelter and help facilitate getting that animal to them. Those numbers are not counted, but they are there and they DO count.
  • We have become the resource for new shelters starting out. This “dilapidated place” as you call us?… well, other shelter directors and managers come here in DROVES every year to take a tour, ask us questions, learn from us and brain storm with us. We ask them to go and help animals, and call us no matter what they need. And we are always there for them – late at night, early in the morning with advice, sharing our resources, helping however we can.goldie
  • We started a Humane Education program. We teach kids about empathy and about how animals feel and what THEY need to do to BE THE CHANGE in their generation. Teach them to go forth and speak up if the see animal cruelty or lack of animal care. And those kids – they are our next generation to try to make a difference.
  • We have gone in and done mass rescues. The most recent in West Virginia where we saved 78 animals from a bad situation, brought them here, worked with a dozen other rescues and shelters to place them, get them into good homes and get them vetted and cared for. It was a massive undertaking for a small organization like us.
  • We started a foster program- moving seniors and hard to place dogs into foster care to help them become more adoptable….we’re in the wee stages but so far it has been very successful.
  • We allow kids to come and volunteer here. Something almost no other organization allows. Little children are here every week, playing with animals, walking them or just sitting and talking to them. We have helped families reconnect and teach their children about charity and love.
  • We take in animals that have no other place to go – the ones that need surgeries, or have issues, the ones that no other place will touch and we get them here and we fix them up and we find them homes. if not then we provide a great quality of life for them here.
  • We take surrender requests and we put those people in touch with our trainers to try to show them that they can keep the animals there in the home with them and they can work on the problems rather than giving up the dogs or cats.
  • We have provided boarding or animals for other shelters when they had over flow, or for military having to go overseas.
  • We are building and raising money for a medical building. When done, it won’t just be for US. We plan to offer to EVERY no-kill shelter in the area, or ones trying to be, the use of our facility. They will pay ONLY our cost for any treatment that any of their animals need. We will help other rescues and shelters save money to help develop programs and other ways to help their animals find homes, so that medical costs do not need to stand in the way.
  • The medical facility will also offer low or no cost spay/neuter and inexpensive basic medical care to the community residents.
  • We have bailed out another rescue – one that is three times the size of us – because they are no-kill, and because to lose them in the community that they are in would be devastating to animals. This was a huge undertaking and frightening for us but it looks like we may just pull that off. Then there is another facility – this one that can house 300 dogs and 200 cats that would otherwise be dead. We paid that forward and we’re still struggling there – don’t suppose you’d like to help?

goatSo Best Friends. When you belittle us and accuse us of not being grateful…what more could you have asked for?
What more could any mentor have asked for, than what we have become?
And when we came to you with a plan to save thousands upon thousands of animals- your only answer is to refuse because you don’t think everyone is being nice enough to each other?
You have broken my spirit.
Broken it.
I had total faith and total belief in you. You were the leader, my mentor, the place that I put all my faith and trust in, and all my belief that things CAN be better that things WILL be better.
You are wrong on this issue and instead of stepping forward and contacting us to try to work it out for January, you instead malign us on your website. I’m so saddened by this. I still believed that you would step up. Right up until today’s post…I still held out. Ask Matt, ask Nathan, ask anyone. They have been telling me that you have gone to the dark side and I said no way….wait and see they will do the right thing. I am so sorry to be wrong. I am deeply broken over this.
I wish, more than you could know, that you were by our side.
I get it though now. I finally get it.
We could have done GREAT things in New York together.
WE – Pets Alive – still will.
Read John Sibley’s blog. Your own staff recognize the negative changes in your organization.
Why can’t you?

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