SOCIETY AIDS PET CONTROL

Twenty-two years ago, eight friends formed the Animal Care Society to help Middle Peninsula residents with the cost of spaying and neutering their pets.

Today, 24 people are active members of the organization, volunteering countless hours to continue to provide this service to people in Gloucester and Mathews counties.

The Animal Care Society’s main goal is to encourage all owners, regardless of financial means, to spay and neuter their animals, says Pat Krumenacker, president of the organization.

“With the exception of professional breeders, there is no reason not to spay and neuter pets to prevent the overpopulation of cats and dogs,” she says.

Krumenacker says that she always has been an animal lover but that she grew up in the wrong era to achieve her childhood dream of being a veterinarian. Since moving to the Mathews area five years ago, she has channeled her heartfelt love for animals into her volunteer work with the society.

The society gives a certificate honored by cooperating veterinarians to those who apply for it. A payment plan is available, if necessary, allowing the pet owner to receive the certificate for a small down payment and pay the remaining balance in installments.

In 1999, the Animal Care Society distributed $25,478 toward spaying and neutering 344 animals in the Gloucester-Mathews area.

The society works closely with the Gloucester- Mathews Humane Society. When prospective pet owners go there seeking to adopt a pet, in order to comply with a state law, they are asked to sign an agreement that they will have their new pet spayed or neutered. If this might prove to be a financial burden, they are referred to the Animal Care Society.

The program began in 1978, when a small group of people living in Mathews – mostly military retirees who knew each other from involvement in other community organizations – began to recognize a need in the community was not being met. What started out as discussions among friends about how to stop the overpopulation of unwanted puppies and kittens grew into a plan to formally solicit donations to financially assist pet owners who could not afford to have their animals spayed or neutered.

The group organized and began to sell donated items and ask for cash donations to raise funds to assist pet owners.

The program grew into the full-scale business venture The Potpourri Shop when the group began to outgrow the building they were renting. In 1983, under the guidance of then-president Irene Tyler, the original eight members took out a personal loan, purchased a building and donated it to the Animal Care Society.

Tyler is the only one of the original eight who still lives in the area. The rest have moved away or passed on. Tyler continued to be active in the organization until a few years ago, when age and health prohibited her from actively participating.

The Potpourri Shop specializes in resale of gently used collectibles, glassware and antiques that are donated or brought in on consignment. The Society also has a designated buyer who goes to auctions and purchases items specifically to be resold in the shop.

Volunteers operate the shop and all profits are deposited into a general fund for disbursement to the veterinarians who honor the certificates issued for spaying, neutering, shots and occasionally other services. The Animal Care Society is housed in the back of the shop.

Dr. Robert George, a veterinarian with Gloucester Veterinary Hospital, says the Animal Care Society’s services are critical. The most serious consequence of people’s not neutering their pets, he said, is when it leads to unwanted animals being born and abandoned so that they starve or get killed on the highway.

The volunteers “provide a valuable service to our community,” he said.

PAT KRUMENACKER

Age: 67

Home: Miles Creek, Mathews County

Family: Husband, Robert; daughters, Kathi and Lynn, and four grandchildren

Education: Attended Brown’s Business School

Occupation: Retired executive secretary

INFORMATION

* Tickets for this year’s Animal Care Society fund-raising raffle are now on sale at The Potpourri Shop. The grand prize is an original acrylic painting of the New Point Lighthouse by local artist LaMae Shaw. The drawing will be at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the shop. A bake sale will be held at the shop that same day.

* The Potpourri Shop is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For information, call 725-5242.