A pet treat tasting event at Socorro’s Tractor Supply on Saturday gave local animal care, rescue and adoption organizations a platform to meet with the public and adopt a pet or two and raise awareness of the local pet population crisis.
When interim store manager Eddie Marquez saw his company was planning a pet treat tasting for May 18, he decided he could make his store the site for organizations devoted to taking the extra step in helping animals.
“Eddie reached out to me and said ‘hey I’d like to put this event on can you help?’ I said absolutely,” Leah Tevis said.
Tevis runs Socorro’s Trap-Neuter-Release program for feral cats and she reached out to the Animal Protective Association, Canis Fidelis, Animal Haven Vet Clinic, Sunflower Pet Care and the Socorro Animal Shelter to bring the event together.
“I do a lot of animal welfare and rescue in Socorro. It’s something that we definitely need here. I think every community member has seen a stray dog or a stray cat they have crossed their paths,” Tevis said.
While Tevis may focus part of her time on feral cats she also volunteers at the Socorro Animal Shelter and knows first-hand about the current overpopulation of dogs in the city and county. Several bright eyed and well-mannered pooches were available for adoption Saturday.
“There are so many wonderful dogs there, and we really are trying to find them homes. One of the main motivators behind this event is to raise awareness that the shelter does exist. It’s here. It’s an awesome resource for people. So, let’s find these animals homes because they’re awesome. If your readers know anyone that’s looking for a dog or a cat, try the shelter and we’re always looking for volunteers,” Tevis said.
Socorro’s Faith Morris is pre-veterinary student at New Mexico Tech who is fundraising to film the documentary entitled Stray Strong: A documentary on Stray Overpopulation in New Mexico. The three-year veterinary assistant also provides pet care services and she’s a blog writer for Cornell University’s One Health Feline Blog.
“I’m advocating for the animals. I think it’s very important for people to be able to spay and neuter animals. I’m a little upset there’s so many strays that people hit them and don’t really care. I’m tired of seeing so many dead strays. I want to do something meaningful to kind of help them,” Morris said. “One of the goals is basically to raise awareness about different resources in the community. I want people to know that we do have resources in town available for animal welfare, to give them the tools to take action.”
Marquez was pleased with Tevis’ efforts in bringing the event together and he noted his company is in the business of helping people with their animals.
“Dogs are our customers, so were here to serve them and the community. We want to bring attention to the problems we have and that things available in our community like the vaccinations, spaying and neutering and stuff like that. We don’t want a lot of strays out there,” Marquez said.
All six organizations involved have Facebook pages or website and Tevis hopes people will do some research to find out the services all offer including vouchers to help low-income families.
“If you do have a feral cat situation in your neighborhood, then you have someone to contact and we have the tools to loan you and we will give you step by step instructions on how to do it. If you are looking to adopt an animal we have the resources that we have. If you see a stray dog, what do you do? We want to make sure that everyone’s equipped to be able to handle these situations in town so we can all work together to help mitigate this problem,” Tevis said.
