For Now, PAWS Closes Door to New Adoptions

Donna Weber stood inside her Foster Avenue home, peering down into two playpens. Three kittens slept silently inside one pen while a small orange cat moved about his sleeping pen-mates in the other.

This room was supposed to be Weber’s Victorian parlor, but plans changed almost 17 years ago when her family came home from vacation to find a cat with kittens underneath their porch. 

She contacted a local organization that helps find homes for rescues and slowly started becoming involved with The Pines Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS – a volunteer non-profit organization that has been saving abandoned cats and finding them homes in the area since 1984. 

But with a decline in funds, volunteers and adoptions, coupled with newly implemented waitlists at local shelters, PAWS is no longer taking in cats until conditions improve.   

“There’s a great need for it, and so, for us to decide we’re not going to take any more in, it was a very big decision,” said Weber who takes care of the cats full-time.   

“It’s just the times, you can’t put your finger on any one thing,” said Lee Frey, a Sayville resident and PAWS volunteer for 25 years. 

The group started in the 80s after transient beach-goers at Cherry Grove and The Pines would abandon their animals at the end of the summer or not care for them properly during their getaway weekends. “Any seaside place has this problem,” Frey said.

After taking them to the vet for vaccinations and physicals, volunteers would foster the cats until they could find a safe permanent home. 

PAWS' main expenses come from veterinarian bills in addition to food and upkeep. While local vets sometimes discount their services for PAWS, Frey points out that “nothing is free.”   

There are a small amount of PAWS foster homes in the area that take in cats and kittens found in dumpsters or behind storefronts and in abandoned structures. The organization also feeds a few feral colonies of cats in the area but lately volunteers have noticed more unwanted house cats that have been dropped off amongst the feral cats.   

The economy has also hurt adoptions. 

 “We used to be really busy, we’d sometimes adopt five to six kittens on a Saturday, but since fall of last year, it has been really slow,” Weber said.  “I think it’s slow all over. Normally I was able to get kittens into North Shore (Animal League) and when I called last week we were put on a waiting list.”

Recently, volunteers have also been sparse. “The founders have passed away and others have stopped because of illness and location changes,” Frey said. 

She went on to say fundraising has also dried up because of the economy and a lack of volunteers to organize events. “There’s been a tough time financially for many people and the donations just stopped and it started to be out of pocket and there’s only a handful of us,” Frey said.    

The organization hasn’t looking into grant money. “I’m sure there’s money out there but I don’t even have time to find it,” Frey said.

Frey and Weber are thankful for hope the situation improves and they will be able to continue taking in cats come the future. “For us there’s a lot of positives, nothing that couldn’t be solved with Lotto," joked Frey.