The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) takes in thousands of abused and homeless animals throughout the year. They provide care until a responsible home is found for them.

 The SPCA also has spay and neuter clinics to help with the cost of spaying and neutering. 

As of Aug. 30, Rockbridge County’s SPCA had 40 cats and 63 dogs. The problem began when the SPCA took in too many strays. 

Tara Rodi is the executive director at the SPCA. Rodi has been staying busy trying to take care of all of the strays. 

Rodi is also working to educate the public about this problem. It is a big deal when the SPCA is at max capacity.  It becomes expensive to feed and take care of all the animals, and if the animals are not adopted after a while they will be euthanized. 

There are multiple ways to help the SPCA. Citizens “can come in volunteer, because we are full, we can use any extra help with food, if you go to our website “rockbridge spca.net”, look up items we need” said Rodi. The SPCA only accepts food donations strictly from their website. The animals at the SPCA  stick to the same food brand because changing up their food can cause the animals to become ill. Another way to help this issue would be to capture the strays and take them to the SPCA to get spayed or neutered. This way they will not keep adding to the stray population out in the wild. 

Lisa Martin is a small animal care teacher at Rockbridge County High School. In her class, Martin educates her students on spaying and neutering, and how to care for the animals properly.  Martin gives her insight on the issue. “Spay and neuter your animals,” said Martin,  “That will not completely fix the problem, but will help a lot.” 

Frances Conner adopted a dog from the SPCA in Feb. of 2019. “There are many unwanted dogs looking for homes,” said Conner,  “That is why I decided to adopt.”  

The SPCA works hard to take care of all abandoned and mistreated animals. They all would really appreciate it to get extra help.