Impact Statement

Because of YOU . . . We are saving innocent lives every day!

Many, many lives were saved this past year at SAFE Haven due entirely to your support. You are the main reason for our shared success. We provided services to 5,690 animals this year (8% increase) at a cost of $157.90 each. The only way we are able to accomplish this is with the support of our unselfish volunteers who donated 11,100 hours of time this year with a value of over $255,000. In addition, $103,121 worth of food, towels, beds and other in-kind services were donated in 2017/2018.

Adoption Program Recap
Thanks to your support, we have had the most successful adoption year in the 25-year history of SAFE Haven for Cats. We found homes for 864 stray cats this year compared to 825 last year. This also means that each cat’s time at the shelter is shrinking and they are finding homes quicker and quicker. The average time it takes a cat to get adopted at SAFE Haven is 4 weeks. (After a one-week isolation period.)

We attribute this success to our adopters, volunteer adoption counselors, our special groups of behavior experts (the Happy Cats and Shy Cats crews) and our life saving fosters.

Thanks to YOU . . . . Happy Endings
In September and October of 2017 the United States faced many disasters as the result of Hurricanes. SAFE Haven, an Emergency Placement Partner with the Humane Society of the U.S., was preparing to take cats from Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey when Irma struck Florida. Less than a week later 30 homeless cats arrived at SAFE Haven from Jacksonville. Then not a month later, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico. On a warm night in October we went to the airport and took 17 cats from the Island. All found wonderful homes here in the Triangle, shortly thereafter.

SAFE Care Clinic Program Recap
We specialize in helping the public with pets, strays and feral cats.

From “Beat the Heat” to “Toms for $10” we have had fun while promoting one goal: to spay and neuter as many cats and kittens as we can every day, to reduce euthanasia of healthy animals.

More than 26,000 cats have been spayed at the SAFE Care Clinic since it opened in 2001. If they would have produced even two kittens each, they would have added 208,000 stray cats to the Triangle in only two years. In 2017 in the Triangle and surrounding counties, 7,785 cats (46% of those entering the shelter system) were euthanized. (NC Department of Agriculture, Veterinary Division, Animal Welfare Section, Animal Welfare Reports.)

The SAFE Care Clinic, owned by Dr. Jennifer Bledsoe-Nix, helps cats, kittens, feral cats and small dogs every day. The clinic is founded on the principle that no one is ever turned away because they cannot pay the already low fee of $85.

By the numbers:

2,958 sterilizations performed this year

1,471 (49.7%) free or reduced price

53.5% female; 46.5% male

85% of the animals coming to the clinic have not had any prior or recent veterinary care.

23 counties in NC were served by the clinic in 2017/2018

The Clinic is licensed by the NC Veterinary Board

SAFE Haven helps other rescue groups and shelters to make sure more cats get sterilized before adoption. They include: Best Friend Pet Adoption, Franklin County Animal Services, FCAS/Paws for Life, Marden’s Cat Tales, and the SPCA of Franklin County.

SAFE Haven’s TNVR Mission
“Un-owned or semi-owned community cats number between 30 to 40 million in the U.S. Only 2% of them are sterilized.” (Managing Community Cats, HSUS, 2014.) How many community or feral cats do we have in the Triangle? According to experts, a mid-range formula is 10% of the human population. The current population of the Triangle is 1.3 million people. In fact, we are the 16th fastest growing region in the nation. That would be 130,000 cats.

Through aggressive and mostly free services, with your help, we have sterilized and vaccinated 459 feral cats and kittens this year. You will notice a change from TNR to TNVR. This is to emphasize what has always been true: that these services include a Rabies (and distemper) vaccine. In helping government officials and others accept TNVR we emphasize this important requirement.

SAFE Haven supports our community in many other ways to help feral cats:
Loan of humane traps and training/support to safely catch elusive cats
Classes – Basics of TNVR – Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Management of the TNRWake feral cat registry. Confidential, third party registry that can help you reclaim a feral cat in Wake County
Free food for feral colony managers
Home of Operation Catnip, the Triangle’s oldest feral cat sterilization program. Housed one Sunday a month at SAFE Haven, OC sterilizes about 700 cats a year.

SAFE Haven is successful because of individual donations
Donations are vital to our organization since adoption fees do not cover the basic medical care of the cats SAFE Haven takes into our shelter. And as a “No Kill” shelter, we believe in treating every medical condition we are able to – just like you do for your beloved pets. You may not know it, but as a private non-profit animal shelter we do not get any funds from the City of Raleigh, Wake County or the State of North Carolina. Because it is of the utmost importance we continue to offer no-cost or low-cost sterilization services to every person/cat in our community who needs it, the support of our donors is vital to this mission. Several hundred cats who use the spay/neuter services of the clinic have never been to a veterinarian. Were it not for the availability of these services, many cats would go unneutered and hundreds of homeless kittens would be born.

Thanks to 6,418 gifts from compassionate animal people, SAFE Haven met our financial goals this past fiscal year. Additionally, we successfully managed our expenses and benefited from $255,000 of donated time from our volunteers. Over $33,000 of cat and dog food, paper towels, toys and litter were also donated to the cats. A total of $69,000 of in-kind goods and services were donated to our special events.

The Pet Food Pantry
The Pantry is the only one of its’ kind in Wake County. Last year, we fed 287 cats, 118 dogs and helped 111 families providing over 10 tons of food. People in need can apply for the Pantry. They can’t have any more than 6 animals, cannot get any more while receiving food from the Pantry and SAFE Haven assists them to assure that 100% of their pets are spayed and neutered.

Low Cost Rabies and Microchip Clinic
This year we were able to provide 339 low cost rabies vaccines ($5) to members of our community at our twice yearly rabies clinics.

Education Programs
Over 100 people attended classes at SAFE Haven on topics such as Senior Cat Care, Starting a Rescue Group, Emergency Planning for your Pets and Bottle Feeding Orphan Kittens.