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Pocono News Section
Stroudsburg SPCA Abruptly Shuts Down
Stroudsburg SPCA Abruptly Shuts Down - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 6:50PM EST
STROUDSBURG, MONROE COUNTY - The Monroe County SPCA is closed permanently. The office abruptly shut down Thursday afternoon. This comes after years of turmoil at the East Stroudsburg facility. The shelter has gone through four managers in less than two years. The latest was fired Monday.
Eyewitness News visited the shelter during its final hours. SPCA volunteer Sarah Richman said goodbye to a rabbit named Tobyanna. While Adina Melendez took Louie for one last walk. And Jeremy Murcelo coaxed Bettis into his car to take him home and be his foster dad.
None of the shelter volunteers were prepared for this moment. "It hurts, I'm shaking," said Sarah Richman.
An SPCA manager called the Monroe County shelter Thursday morning and told workers the place was closing - for good - at four o'clock.
Murcelo said, "It's horrible. This is the only shelter in Monroe that takes all of the unwanted animals."
As of Thursday morning, the SPCA had about 20 dogs. Most of them will go to a local rescue group. The rest will be shipped off to the main SPCA office in Philadelphia.
"Everyone is just running out of places where to take animals. There's no where," said Anne Cowles of the rescue group Animals Can't Talk.
She picked up more than a dozen cats. She's bringing them to PetSmart in Stroud Township where people can adopt them. Cowles is glad she save the cats but worries what will happen to the other pets.
She said, "It means there's gonna be a lot more put down. There's gonna be a lot more animals gonna be destroyed because there's no where to take them."
SPCA workers say they won't put down any of the animals who were staying at the Monroe shelter but there's nothing they can do to help anymore dogs, cats or rabbits.
Murcelo said, "Do not dump your animals here because there won't be anyone to take care of them - they will die in their crates."
We tried to find out why the SPCA closed the Monroe County Branch. No one returned phone calls. | | |
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