The Dog Guru, Inc.
 | ||||||
Queens Chronicle
06/18/2009
Save a dog or cat, save a few dollars
by Jon Blau , Chronicle Reporter
Brady Bunch and Cool Hand Luke, two 11-month-old Labrador retriever and shepherd hound mixes, are ready to be adopted. (courtesy of Stray from the Heart)
Across Queens, little girls and little boys are yanking at the pant legs of their mothers and fathers, staring at the puppies and kittens at local pet stores, screaming “I want one. I want one!”
Sorry, parents. “We can’t afford it” is a poor excuse when animal shelters across Queens are overflowing with dogs and cats ready for adoption at a reduced cost, and there are ways to lower the cost on pet ownership afterward.
Bobbi Giordano, founder of a no-kill rescue organization called Bobbi and the Strays in Ozone Park, works around the clock to find loving homes for the borough’s displaced animals. Her phone is always on, awaiting calls from prospective owners as well as reports of another dog or cat found wandering the streets.
The urgency to place these orphaned animals is great. While Animal Care and Control of New York City recorded that 2,162 of its pets found homes in April, 701 others were euthanized for lack of space in shelters. At any given time, Giordano might have more than 50 dogs and 100 cats under her supervision. All of them, she said, do not deserve to suffer such a fate.
Instead, Giordano believes they all should be part of the indescribable joy she experiences when a pet finds their new forever home.
“I know to that one animal, it means security,” Giordano said.
One of the benefits of adoption is that every precaution is taken to make sure the pet-owner relationship is a fit. On many occasions, Giordano said a person starts out looking for one breed and ends up with another as lifestyle considerations are taken into account.
For example, older people need an animal that isn’t too large or lively. Older animals are sometimes harder to place, according to Giordano, but they are often the easiest to take care of. Cats, in general, are very low maintenance.
All adoptions are made by appointment, because Giordano and her colleagues make sure the animal can live in the home. Cleanliness is important, as well as doors and windows being secure to prevent a dog or cat from escaping onto the streets again.
In return, a new owner will receive a pet, regardless of age or breed, which will adore them. And unlike at some pet stores, the dog or cat has been examined by a vet and medical conditions have been pretreated. Animals are also spayed or neutered.
At the Animal Center of Queens in Rego Park, cat adoptions come with a fee of $150 and dogs can cost anywhere from $250 to $350. Those prices are still lower than at most pet stores, and like Bobbi and the Strays, all animals are already spayed or neutered. The Animal Center of Queens will include 30-days of pet health insurance, a tracking microchip and starter food.
The fees, in reality, make sure a prospective owner has the means to afford the animal’s lifetime cost. The worst thing a shelter could do is place an animal only to have it returned because the owner cannot care for it anymore.
“The more animals we can place, the more we can take on,” said Lori Carpino, manager of the Animal Center of Queens.
Raja Shah, who runs The Dog Guru, Inc. and lives in Long Island City, works with several organizations to try and facilitate a way to save strays. Along with the AC&C, which has a receiving center in Rego Park and adoption centers in Manhattan and Brooklyn, petfinder.com lists the names of available cats and dogs for web surfers to pick out the perfect pet.
Shah spends his days and nights working with rescue organizations such as Stray from the Heart and other no-kill shelters to claim animals whose adoption periods have almost run their course. He will then pick dogs up, take them to his training facility in the Poconos and will charge a $250 adoption fee to prospective owners.
It’s still cheaper to adopt through Shah than buy an animal from a pet store, he said. Vaccines are already included in the cost. And again, Shah promises adopted animals are just as affectionate as those from the store.
“You should always adopt, that’s my advice,” Shah said. “Why should you pay $3,500 when you can get an animal for a price as low as $50?”
bobbiandthestrays.org
71-03 80th Street #132, Glendale or Cargo Area C of the JFK airport
Call: (718) 326-6070
FAX: (718) 326-6071
Open Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m.
to 5 p.m.
Sunday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The Dog Guru, Inc.
thedogguruinc.com
48-25 43rd Street, Woodside
Call: (917) 355-3507
KittyKaretakers of Queens
kittykaretakers.petfinder.org
P.O. Box 310626, Jamaica
(718) 670-7221
kittykaretakers@yahoo.com
Animal Center of Queens
petfinder.com/shelters/acq.html
89-10 Eliot Avenue, Rego Park
Adoption Hours: Sunday to Friday:
11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
AC&C — Queens Pet Receiving Center
92-29 Queens Boulevard, Rego Park
Call: (212) 788-4000
Receiving Hours: Wednesday and Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
AC&C — Brooklyn Animal Care Center
2336 Linden Boulevard, Brooklyn
Call: (212) 788-4000
Shelter Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.,
Monday through Sunday
Adoption Hours: 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Closed on all holidays
©Queens Chronicle 2009d text.
This article may be found at:
Best of 2009
Readers’ Choice Awards
Best Trainer
Winner:
Lynne Petermann (The Pooky Professor)
(973) 444-5880
ThePookyProfessor.com
Runner-up:
Andrea Arden Dog Training
(212) 414-9597
AndreaArden.com
Other favorites:
JennaLee Gallicchio
Morris K9 Campus
Raja Shah, The Dog Guru
Susan Greenbaum (Barking Hills Country Club)
This page can be found at:
