Helping animals - and people who own them

In the Animal Welfare Association's early years, "we answered any kind of call," says Jim Denelsbeck, who specialized in complaints about squirrels gone wild.

The retired draftsman is 83, lives in Deptford, and still volunteers occasionally at the association his former mother-in-law helped set up in 1948.

But AWA (awanj.org) has evolved; these days it no longer responds to calls about squirrels in attics but does keep an eye on feral cats through geo-mapping.

And as the nonprofit marks its 65th birthday, the expansion of its Voorhees facility dramatizes the changing approaches - and enduring realities - of the animal-welfare world, where professional and personal commitments to our fellow creatures run as deep as blood.

"We never stop asking ourselves what more we can do," says Maya Richmond, the AWA's high-energy executive director.

"It's more than sheltering. Our services extend beyond our walls . . . to help people as much as animals. Because animals don't come in by themselves. They have a person attached."

I meet Richmond, 41, in the sunny lobby of the AWA's longtime headquarters on Centennial Boulevard.

The lobby is pretty much the only quiet spot in what, on the day I visit, is home to 120 cats, 35 dogs, and a handful of bunnies and guinea pigs.

Ubiquitous fans, open windows, and elbow grease help keep the place breathable for all. But mazelike hallways and claustrophobic spaces suggest a busy operation bursting at the seams.

About 45 employees and 150 volunteers help provide adoption, foster care, spay-neuter, vaccination, humane education, and other services. "Right now we're having a 'Raining Cats' promotion to save 300 cats and kittens in two months" by reducing adoption fees, Richmond says.

"We're also having a huge drive for foster families, and 'mega adoption' days at PetSmart in Moorestown on Sept. 28 and 29."

Reduced-price spay-and-neuter services, including for dogs and cats in Camden, helped AWA "fix" 11,388 animals last year. Nearly 2,000 adoptions were completed in 2012 as well.

AWA's $2.2 million annual budget is primarily funded by service fees, donations, and grants - such as one being used to target spay/neuter services in areas where "geo-mapping" of phone calls to animal control services suggests a high feral-cat concentration.

Likewise, private money is paying for expansion work being done in phases as funds are secured. A $1.3 million veterinary clinic is under construction, with an additional $3.5 million to $4.25 million in new and renovated shelter space proposed.

"A lot of animal welfare programs these days are modeled on [human] social services," notes Richmond, who grew up in Vermont and lives in Medford Lakes.

"The goal is to keep the animal in the home," thereby controlling shelter populations and costs, she says, adding, "We try to help people keep their pets."

Although it does euthanize under certain circumstances, such as incurable painful illness, AWA is often referred to as a "no-kill" shelter.

That commitment is essential to volunteers such as Sandra Sloan.

"I have a special love for the bunnies," says Sloan, 61, a retired legal secretary who has two rabbits and four guinea pigs at her Haddon Heights home.

"The organization accomplishes a lot - on a shoestring," says Carolyn Bekes, a Cherry Hill physician who cites the work AWA does in Camden.

Marlton attorney Valerie Windstein says she was initially "drawn by the reputation" to become a volunteer, then an adopter, and now a board member.

She's jazzed about the new construction, which "will allow us to continue the quality care" of dogs, cats, and other companion animals.

But given the reluctance of pet owners to spay and neuter, as well as abandonment rates - and the reproductive skills of the animals themselves - new buildings alone, Bekes says, "won't solve the problem."