Animal housing: PSPCA chief breaking new ground in Fishtown

At 56, Jerry Buckley took early retirement from corporate America. "I had no idea what was coming next," he recalls.

"I always wanted at least three careers," he says with a rueful laugh. His first was in journalism, his second in public relations.

His third act? Buckley reinvented himself completely as an animal activist. His "retirement" is no such thing, and includes a business card emblazoned with a photo of a kitten.

After three years as CEO of PSPCA, the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Buckley will open a satellite office in Fishtown in June. On a walk-through, he opens the glass door to welcome employee Chazz Lopez and a pit bull named Jigga. Rescued from neglect and mange, Jigga has been living at the PSPCA's main operation on Erie Avenue for a few years, until he finds his new human.

PSPCA's new pet adoption and training space at 1546 Frankford Ave. places the nonprofit animal shelter squarely in Hipsterville. The organization recently signed a five-year lease, and the satellite concept is one Buckley hopes might be replicated around the city.

"It's a place of hope, because we are a no-kill shelter with animals looking for forever homes," he says. "At Fishtown, we will have a smaller number of animals, but it's a branding site for everything we do. We'll have flat-screen TVs advertising all the animals available for adoption at Erie Avenue."

Since joining as CEO in 2012, he has pursued this new strategy. Next month's opening of the Fishtown satellite office is its culmination.

Buckley, 59, doesn't fit the hipster profile. He wears a corporate uniform of gray hair, silk ties, and leather loafers. A father of four high school- and college-age children, he has lived in Wilmington for the better part of two decades.

Buckley wants the PSPCA - founded in 1867 to prevent cruelty to horses - to function like a retail shop, offering animal adoptions, vaccines, spay-and-neuter procedures, and behavior-training classes in booming residential neighborhoods.

"We operate by supply and demand," he explains, bringing in animals from rural Pennsylvania counties to city neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

"Pit bulls do very well in places like Fishtown, where they might not be adopted in other places. But they're understood here, and the community really wants us. This will be a community center, but with animals."

Fishtown PSPCA is just a few miles from the main PSPCA offices at 350 E. Erie Ave., but it offers modern architecture, a kitty condo, and benches outside so humans can hang out and drink La Colombe coffee while they wait for their animals to be vaccinated or take behavioral classes.

"We looked at Fairmount, West Philly, and couldn't find a landlord willing to offer space. Fishtown is hugely animal friendly," he says.

A native of Geneva, N.Y., Buckley was the youngest of six children. After a long career as a news editor and publisher, he joined Campbell Soup Co. in Camden as a public-relations executive. In 2011, a new CEO came to Campbell's, and Buckley thought he'd retire early, after 16 years with the company.

"I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Out of the blue, a head-hunter wrote, "How about running the PSPCA?"

I said, 'I have two dogs, that's the extent of my experience.' So if you'd asked me if I thought I'd be running the PSPCA . . ." he says, laughing.

In the three years since moving into this somewhat unexpected role, his mantra has been to bring stability, raise awareness, and increase adoptions. PSPCA's live-release rate, which measures the number of animals that leave its shelter, is 97 percent each year, Buckley says.

"We had six locations in outer counties. The board decided to turn those over to local organizations. We recommitted to humane-law enforcement," taking on illegal shelters and abuse cases requiring lawyers and forensic veterinarians from top schools such as the University of Pennsylvania. (To report animal abuse, call the cruelty hotline at 1-866-601-7722).

Salary wasn't a factor in his decision to take the job.

"This position appealed to me for several reasons. It literally is about saving lives, helping animals and helping people. I was attracted by the complexity of the organization - from humane-law enforcement to the medical side of spay/neuter, to adoptions and foster, to wellness and low-cost clinics."

Plus, he doesn't play golf.

"I'm not nearly ready to retire, and I wouldn't trade these years for anything."

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@erinarvedlund