Gina, Author at Dog, Cat, Pet Adoption, Animal Shelter in Buffalo

SPCA Serving Erie County Paws for Love: HOUSE CALLS, Providing Virtual Comfort to Your Home!

April 2, 2020
By: SPCA Chief Communications Officer Gina Lattuca

UPDATE, MAY 5: Starting today, receive a dose or two of virtual comfort from our Paws for Love animals as they make their house calls right on the SPCA’s Facebook page! Get your daily dose of therapy here!

OUT-OF-WORK THERAPY PETS SEEK VIRTUAL COMFORT OPPORTUNITIES!

The SPCA Serving Erie County Paws for Love therapy animals have officially been relegated to house calls. Make that VIRTUAL house calls.

These Paws for Love power-paws (and feet!) have the ability to heal and comfort right through your screen…from their houses to YOUR houses!

No pharmacy visits. No trips to the doctor. No active ingredients you can’t pronounce.

Gunnar and Howdy are trying to relieve the stress of folks getting a busy signal every time they call Unemployment.

Simply stay home and visit this SPCA Serving Erie County Paws for Love: HOUSE CALLS playlist! Each visit will bring you one of our four-footed ‘out-of-work’ Paws for Love therapy pets offering some holistic, home-side comfort…and we guarantee you’ll be feeling better in no time!

Plus, now you can tune in to WKBW-TV Ch. 7 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning between 6:45 a.m. and 7 a.m. for your 3x/weekly dose of PAWS FOR LOVE comfort and therapy! With Ch. 7’s help, you’ll feel a little comfort first thing in the morning! What a way to start the day!

Wilma misses her therapy work so much that she’s taken to hoarding

Winston misses his visits to Children’s Hospital, the Buffalo Niagara Airport, and Greenfield Manor.

This hiatus from therapy work has taught Sydney that a big part of effective therapy is to let others play the therapist!

Yeti and Rubie are ready to return to their work comforting people at any moment…but for now, HOUSE CALLS will have to do!

SPCA Paws for Love: HOUSE CALLS begins on WKBW-TV this week. Can’t wait? Visit this playlist for daily doses of HOUSE CALLS comfort! Then click the image below to see Ch. 7’s Jeff Slawson introduce the House Calls feature!

For more information, contact SPCA Chief Communications Officer Gina Lattuca: 716-875-7360, ext. 211.

UPDATE April 14, 2020:
Read more about the all-new SPCA Paws for Love: HOUSE CALLS, Project ECMC, bringing Paws for Love healing and comfort to the hardworking staff at Erie County Medical Center, here >>

SPCA Serving Erie County: CONTINUING TO SERVE

May 5, 2020 — While many businesses are required to pause their work during our health crisis, animal shelters are on the list of essential businesses in New York State. This means that, while limiting what we can offer Erie County, we can still do everything possible to serve the people and animals of our community, and that includes wild animals.

Check out this update from the Wildlife Department of the SPCA Serving Erie County. Clearly the wild work is definitely taking flight this spring:

Spring migration is fully underway! Baltimore orioles have been sighted at area feeders and ruby-throated hummingbirds are never far behind! (People used to think that hummingbirds hitched a ride on the backs of migrating geese, but now we know that these tiny iridescent birds fly 500 miles NON-STOP across the Gulf of Mexico under their own power!)

To the delight of area birdwatchers, warblers have begun arriving in the past few days. In the spring, these tiny colorful songbirds migrate huge distances from their wintering grounds in the tropics to their nesting grounds in the north. The first to arrive in late April are pine warblers and palm warblers, followed soon after by yellow warblers and yellow-rumped warblers. The first two weeks of May are when we really see the full range of warblers passing through, from the understated black-and-white warblers to the beautiful and elusive cerulean, blackburnian, and prothonatary warblers.

Other neotropical migrants include swifts and swallows, herons and bitterns, flycatchers, sandpipers, and other shorebirds.

One hazard that these birds face on their long migration is completely unexpected: SHARKS! It was recently discovered that small songbirds make up a not-insignificant part of the diet of baby tiger sharks! (https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/tiger-sharks-eat-songbirds).

We received our first baby mallards this week and will begin to have waterfowl volunteers coming in to care for them starting next week! We also received two goslings who are now being fostered by a nice family of Canada geese at Tifft Nature Preserve!

Other notable admissions this week include two baby short-tailed weasels (also known as stoats), three baby chipmunks, and our first baby birds of the season!

Finally, the least bittern who has been our guest since November 1 is almost ready to go! He has been living in an outdoor enclosure for the past week, and as soon as the weather is cooperative we will be releasing him!

— James Sevigny, SPCA Serving Erie County

Can you assist ill family members or friends by caring for the household pet(s) if someone becomes ill? If so, please copy and share one of these infographics, courtesy of Animalsheltering.org:

SPCA Serving Erie County: CONTINUING TO SERVE

April 28, 2020 — The SPCA Serving Erie County is thrilled to have been given the opportunity to assist The Belle Center, a community partner of Buffalo Public Schools, by sharing with them several boxes of books, notebooks, pens, pencils, soccer balls, food, and drawstring bags. Center representatives will use these items in care packages they’re assembling for local families in need!

The mission of The Belle Center is to offer innovative educational, social and community building services for children, youth, senior citizens and families living in Western New York. Learn more about the center here.

SPCA Serving Erie County: CONTINUING TO SERVE

April 27, 2020 — The SPCA Serving Erie County’s Officer Jennifer Maleskis rescued these baby weasels from Wegmans on Sheridan Drive in Williamsville April 25 and brought them to our wildlife hospital at our 300 Harlem Rd., West Seneca shelter.

Jimmy in the SPCA’s Wildlife Department worked with them to ensure they were healthy enough to be transferred to a local wildlife rehabilitator for a somewhat “extended” stay until old enough to release!

To see what services the SPCA Serving Erie County is offering the community during its COVID-19 response phase, please visit https://YourSPCA.org/COVIDResponse.

The Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) state in a recent document concerning COVID-19’s transmission between humans and animals, “CDC is aware of a small number of pets, including dogs and cats, to be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, mostly after close contact with people with COVID-19. Only a few of the animals reported to be positive showed signs of illness.” Read that entire document from the CDC by clicking the image below.

The American Veterinary Medical Association has released a statement regarding the confirmation of COVID in two New York State cats. Read that statement and find more information on testing pets here.

April 22, 2020

The USDA has released a document regarding the confirmation of COVID in two cats residing in separate parts of New York State.

Included in this document is the following statement: “Public health officials are still learning about SARS-CoV-2, but there is no evidence that pets play a role in spreading the virus in the United States. Therefore, there is no justification in taking measures against companion animals that may compromise their welfare. Further studies are needed to understand if and how different animals, including pets, could be affected.”

Read the full USDA document here.

April 22, 2020

Today is the 50th Anniversary of #EarthDay!

Visit the SPCA’s Facebook page at 9:50 a.m., 10:50 a.m., 11:50 a.m.,
12:50 p.m., 1:50 p.m., and 2:50 p.m. for live videos from our Wildlife Director Barbara Haney and her team at the SPCA Serving Erie County! They’ll tell you about why Earth Day is so important not only on a global scale, but why it matters to us (and our wildlife) right here in Western New York!

And we’re not forgetting the kids at home; during the 12:50 p.m. video children will learn how to make a bird house, and at 2:50 p.m. there will be a book read especially for kids to help them learn the importance of every living thing on earth! You won’t want your kids to miss these Earth Day edition videos!

Find the SPCA’s Facebook page right here >>

Couldn’t tune in?
-Find Video 1 from 8:50 a.m. here >>
-Find Video 2 from 9:50 a.m. here >>
-Find Video 3 from 10:50 a.m. (includes a behind-the-scenes look at what’s happening in various departments of the SPCA) here >>
-Find Video 4 from 11:50 a.m. here >>
-Find Video 5 from 12:50 p.m. here >>
-Find Video 6 from 1:50 p.m. here >>
-Find Video 7 from 2:50 p.m. here >>

SPCA Premieres #bestwithmom Campaign

Baby season is in full swing. It’s the time of year for baby animals of all types, including kittens, squirrels, and rabbits.

Due to the current health crisis, the SPCA Serving Erie County has been forced to temporarily change its admission policies when it comes to these animals. In an effort to educate community members on what’s best for these young animals during this COVID-19 Response phase, the SPCA has premiered the #bestwithmom campaign.

Wondering what to do with that baby bunny or squirrel you found in the yard? Did your cat have kittens, or did you find an unowned mom cat and kittens outdoors? The SPCA is only able to admit injured or ill animals in emergency situations at this time, but the good news is the animal you see may not need our intervention at all. Find the appropriate image below to learn what to do next in your specific situation: