Equal parts animal shelter and community resource, the Dutchess County SPCA (DCSPCA) is making a big impact in the Hudson Valley. In this episode of The Advisor Podcast brought to you by JGS, CPA we speak with executive director, Lynne Meloccaro.

With a new leadership team in place, an entirely humane approach and a mission to foster a community where all animals are treated with respect and compassion, the nonprofit organization, located at 636 Violet Avenue in Hyde Park, NY, has reinvented itself. In fact, under its new direction, the DCSPCA has achieved a 95 percent live release rate – an impressive 18 percent increase – and introduced programs to augment its reach in the region.

In late 2018, DCSPCA appointed Lynne as executive director to address the issues that had given the shelter a somewhat rocky recent history. As the former executive director of The American Symphony Orchestra and Bard College’s The Orchestra Now, Meloccaro, a lifelong animal lover, brings decades of professional experience in nonprofit management to the DCSPCA.

For the past two years, she has quietly and diligently worked to improve the standard of care for the animals and to institute managerial best practices. She hired a new team of experienced shelter professionals to help realize the organization’s mission to aid animals in need and support the community of pet owners. This effort has resulted in a host of positive, mission-minded steps.

One of the primary goals, and a driving “why” of the DCSPCA, is to secure lasting homes for adoptable pets. This only happens as the culmination of numerous other essential functions: DCSPCA rescues stray and abandoned animals from all over the county; its humane law division seizes animals from abusive situations and prosecutes the abusers; it receives wounded and injured animals and restores them to health; and each year it takes in 700 to 800 kittens born in the wild that would otherwise not survive. 

DCSPCA now offers a variety of new programs to support Dutchess County’s population of pet owners.

DCSPCA will board and care for animals free of charge for up to 60 days for people who need emergency housing for their animals when, for instance, owners are hospitalized or had a house fire. DCSPCA works with several community partners such as Grace Smith House, Hudson Valley Hospice, and Mental Health America of Dutchess County to care for the pets of clients of these programs. 

DCSPCA offers special repayment plans for people whose animals require medical attention beyond the means of owners to pay right away. DCSPCA will treat an animal and work out a customized repayment schedule. In this way DCSPCA has been able to save the lives of several dogs and cats and reunite them with their owners.

In partnership with Dutchess County Department of Health, DCSPCA has expanded the number of free rabies clinics it holds to four each year, ensuring a healthier overall population of animals in the county.

The shelter stocks a network of human food pantries with pet food to support people who may be struggling economically. Especially this year, the pet food pantry program has been a critical service to families in need.

 In 2020, DCSPCA embarked on a new initiative to help keep pets in their homes. It has established field teams that will visit the home to address behavioral issues with dogs and cats and educate the owners on how best to work with their animals so that they do not have to give them up.

“The new vision for DCSPCA,” Meloccaro stated, “is not just as a warehouse for unwanted animals, but a community resource center to assist Dutchess County in caring for its animal population.”

Find out more info at https://dcspca.org