SPCA of Brazoria County

Last week we covered what the SPCA is and what the SPCA of Brazoria County aims to do: work tirelessly until there are no more homeless pets in our county. That sounds like a big goal, and maybe it is. But any goal worth achieving is worth the effort, and the SPCA BC offers many programs that have made all the difference in the lives of pets and homeless animals. The statistics on our main website demonstrate we are moving in the right direction. In 2023, we had a save rate of 93%.

One of the most important ways we can eliminate the homeless pet problem is through our SPCA CLINIC SERVICES program. While our clinic offers a number of health care services at affordable prices, one of the most important offered is spay/neuter services. How many times have you seen someone sitting in a parking lot with a kennel full of puppies or kittens and a cardboard sign that says “Free to Good Home”? Those puppies and kittens might take the place of pets that could be adopted from the SPCA BC. Often, those puppies and kittens end up at the shelter anyway, because they are impulsively taken home without considering the responsibility involved when a new pet is added to the home. Spay/neuter helps eliminate unplanned litters of puppies and kittens that will need homes.

In uncertain times, people can face circumstances that make it difficult to keep their pets. They believe the only option is to surrender their pets to a shelter. We believe our pets become part of our families and so POSH (Pet and Owner Support Hub) has been established to keep families from being split up, and also save shelter space for animals who don’t have a home to begin with. This program helps with food and medical expenses, grooming, training and emergency boarding. We encourage pet owners to contact us with whatever issues they may be struggling with–we will do our best to find a helpful solution! If it is absolutely necessary for pet owners to rehome their pets, either temporarily or permanently, we will provide counsel on how to list their pets on Home to Home, a direct home placement service. 

Our Foster and Adoption programs are critical to the overall success of our mission. Our foster program allows space to be opened up for other homeless animals when volunteers agree to take fosters into their homes until fur-ever homes are found. (Of course, sometimes we see what we call “foster fails,” when our foster families fall in love with their fosters and decide to adopt them!) Our adoption program is our favorite, because it means we’ve played an integral role in placing a homeless pet into a loving home fur-ever. 

There are people in other states who want to adopt, but their shelters actually have rescue animal shortages. In some cases, people see a homeless pet they want to adopt on Petfinder and the travel distance to pick it up can be challenging. This is where our Transport program meets two needs:

Shelter to Shelter Transfer makes them available to potential adopters in other states and frees up space in our shelter to provide life-saving care to new rescue animals. The SPCA BC has a van outfitted with kennels to safely transport dogs and cats to shelters in the Pacific Northwest and Wisconsin. Our transport coordinator is currently working on establishing shelter to shelter relationships in other parts of the country, too.

Through Long Distance Adoption, we are helping the adopted animal reach its new home. When someone in another state wants to adopt one of the homeless pets from our shelter through Petfinder, the transport coordinator will work on a meetup location between our drivers and the adopter. Recently we had a family from Florida fly to Hobby Airport to meet our transport coordinator, collect their new dog and fly back home! And not long ago, six precious puppies were able to travel to the PNW on a shelter to shelter transport with homes already awaiting them. Sometimes it takes thinking outside the box to make it happen, but it’s the SPCA BC’s mission and we take it seriously!

So how do we make all this happen? With the amazing help of our VOLUNTEERS. There are so many ways volunteers can help the administrators and staff of the SPCA BC. Together, we can save them all!

As always, if you have a question, concern, or suggestion that hasn’t been answered or met here yet, you can always send an email to info@spcabc.org.