CAT

Pet Reprieve: Animal Shelter Spins Sad Situation Into Success Story

Jim Hickey |

At the same time many Vineyard businesses are succumbing to the recession and closing their doors, the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard in Edgartown is taking in more money than it is spending, allowing it to expand hours and raising hopes it will continue to operate through next year and beyond.

“It’s a Vineyard success story, and there aren’t a lot of those right now,” said Dukes County manager Russell Smith, who oversees the shelter’s finances. “Things are going better than we hoped.”

Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard
MSPCA
 

 

 
kitty at the MSPCA

MSPCA Releases Some Financial Data

Sam Bungey

The Island adoption center run by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) has operated with an average annual loss in excess of $100,000 for the past five years, according to an agency spokesman.

Breaking a silence of several weeks on the operational details of the Vineyard shelter scheduled for closure May 1 by the financially troubled charity, spokesman Brian Adams told the Gazette this week that more than 50 per cent of the operating budget comes over on the boat.

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MSPCA Defends Decision to Close The Island Shelter

Sam Bungey

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) yesterday denied that a lack of caution is behind a multimillion-dollar investor loss which led to the closure of the Vineyard animal shelter, announced a fortnight ago.

The Vineyard branch of the MSPCA is one of three state shelters which will close this year due to a loss of $11.5 million, or a quarter of the total endowment for 2008. Spokesman Brian Adams blamed the shortfall on the economic crisis as a whole.

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kitty

Many Questions, Few Answers on Closing of MSPCA Shelter

Sam Bungey

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) shelter was tight-lipped about details behind the decision to close the Vineyard branch of the financially troubled organization this week.

The MSPCA announced last Thursday it would close the Katharine M. Foote memorial building in Edgartown on May 1, along with two other Massachusetts branches, in the wake of a crippling 25 per cent loss in endowment money for 2008.

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MSPCA Head Announces Plan to Close Shelter Here

The Katharine M. Foote memorial animal shelter in Edgartown, which is owned by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will be closed, the Gazette learned late yesterday. Saying that the organization’s finances had taken a hard hit from the recession and the falling stock market, MSPCA president Carter Luke announced that the society would close three of its shelters, including the one on the Vineyard. The Island shelter is due to close May 1, according to a report on The Boston Globe Web site last night.

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