Our interview series have given new insights into different aspects of our community, from small business owners to newspaper staff. Now, we'd like to showcase the work done by those who care for our four-legged, winged and even scaled companions. For this series, we're interviewing animal care specialists.
This week, I was fortunate to sit down with the executive director of the Rockbridge County SPCA, Tara Rodi.
What services does this location provide?
We serve as the municipal shelter for the area: Rockbridge County, Lexington, and Buena Vista. We are an animal shelter and an SPCA, so we take in homeless, abandoned, and unwanted animals.
Does this location have a high volume of animals?
It does, yes. Right now, we're full with dogs and we have just a couple of cats, but cat season's coming around so we'll probably be seeing a lot more cats come in the near future. But we do have easily over 500 animals here a year.
How does this location handle the volume of animals?
We care for them. When they first come in, they're here for a hold time which depends on if they are a stray or if they look like they belong to somebody. It's seven days if it's a stray. It's 12 days if it looks like they belong to somebody and that could be because they have a collar on, they have a microchip, they're well groomed, or we can tell that they're neutered. After their hold time is up, if no one has come for them, then we put them over to the adoption side of the SPCA and we put them up for adoption. We hang on to the animals for as long as we can, as long as they don't get sick, or injured, or bite somebody. So some animals we've had here for a couple of years.
We serve as the pound, essentially, for the localities. If we were only a pound, after the hold time was up it would probably be euthanasia for those animals. But since we were also an SPCA, we then take the animals into the SPCA side of our shelter, where we care for them for as long as we can. That's why we rely on a lot of donations and community support grants to help us do all that.
What do you like most about working with animals?
Being around animals is great, but it's even better when we see them go home with somebody and see the adoption and watch them drive out of the driveway. It's very touching for the staff, especially when they've been taking care of them for so long. Just to see that they got a home. Then, we love hearing back from people two or three, maybe even sometimes seven years later, telling us about the dog or cat they adopted and sending us pictures. So, knowing that these animals get a great forever home and are in good hands is always good.
What is a major challenge for animal care in our area?
Funding, of course, for getting them spayed and neutered. We're required, since we are a municipal shelter, that all animals leaving here have to be spayed and neutered by Virginia law. It's hard sometimes when somebody wants to adopt a dog or cat and that hasn't been done yet, because then it puts that on them to pay for it and do it. So we are super excited because in May we are opening our own spay neuter clinic just up our driveway. So we will have the ability to spay and neuter every animal that comes in the shelter and have that part of the adoption process already done. So that's one of our biggest challenges.
Of course, we have a lot of cats in this area. People have issues with cats multiplying and living in their neighborhoods and on their streets. Again, our spay and neuter clinic is going to be a great way for people to be able to manage cat colonies and make sure that the cats are not reproducing. A cat shouldn't have to be having kittens over and over. A [female] cat can come into heat anytime it's around a male and, you know, that's a hard wear and tear on a mother cat. So getting them spayed and neutered is always good.
Also, for the feral cats, we will be ear tipping them. We'll recut the tip of the ear straight across and that'll signify to people that this cat has been spayed or neutered and is vaccinated. So people will know, if they see that cat, 'that's the one we want to leave here, this one we want to catch and make sure it gets spayed or neutered.'
What is the most common animal seen at this location?
We are a pit bull and hound shelter. Lots of pit bulls and hounds.
What was the most unusual animal seen at this location?
We got a really big lizard. It was a huge, Argentine Tegu lizard. We've gotten a chinchilla in before. We've had some snakes, but I wasn't here for the snakes. There's different, like, pocket pets or domestic pets, that sometimes we get. Your typical rabbits and birds and stuff like that. But this huge Argentine Tegu lizard, that was a big guy. We drove him all the way to Norfolk to a lizard rescue. He was found just walking the streets. Definitely not an indigenous type animal for our area, but somebody found and picked him up. No one claimed it. He wouldn't have survived, obviously, in this climate, so he ended up at a rescue in Norfolk.
What advice would you give to new animal owners in this area?
Just make sure that you have the means to take care of your animal. There's going to be food costs, expenses every once in a while. Make sure you have a safe environment for your pet. If it's a cat, please keep it indoors so it'll be safe, you know, it won't run away and be another lost cat. Make sure you microchip all your animals. We microchip every animal that leaves here but if you didn't get a pet from us, getting it the microchip is always helpful because it helps us find the owner. Then just consider the yard and where you're living, you know? If you live in an apartment, a pit bull or hound is not an animal for you. As much as some people don't like to hear us say that, we have to explain to them, that that's just not going to work.
So just consider where you're living, your financial means, and being able to take care of the pet for the life of the pet. It's not a temporary thing, when you adopt, it's for the life of that pet.
The Rockbridge County SPCA is located at 10 Animal Place, Lexington, VA 24450 and can be reached at (540) 463-5123
