Trenton Animals Rock(TAR) has a new initiative that includes allowing residents to train and take out their dogs to community activities.

“We definitely need the community,” said Danielle Gletow, Founder of Trenton Animals Rock, “(We need) the local community to start to look local (for pets) and that’s kind of what we’re hoping this program will do; get more people within the city of Trenton as well as the surrounding area to look to the Trenton Animal Shelter first.”

The shelter is not going to hand over dogs to anyone that shows up. A vetting process for residents will be in place to go through. Residents have to become a volunteer and go through at least two shifts with a seasoned volunteer before going out into the community. Only certain dogs will be able to go out into the community 

“It’s only certain dogs obviously,” Gletow said. “They can’t do this with dogs with a bite history, but they can do this with the dogs that we’ve deemed safe in the community; they take them out…they can walk them in the park…they can take them to restaurants…they can take them to festivals.” 

Gletow said that this program, like many programs at TAR, is set up to help the Trenton Community with their pets to keep more strays off of the street. 

“We are looking for new ways right now to encourage people to foster and adopt and volunteer with the shelter and make the shelter more of a resource to the community rather than a place that people think about that animals just go and stay,” Gletow said. 

TAR was founded in the June of 2018 after Gletow saw a post on Facebook about a dog that was in the Trenton Animal Shelter that need medical help. “ I came to learn that the city just didn’t have a budget for injured animals that came in, above $300 per animal. And he had a pretty significant injury to his leg where there were that required surgery and a couple $1,000.” 

She figured out a way to help the dog and get it out of the shelter. At that point, she learned that the TAS was one of the high Kill Shelters with a  47% euthanasia ratio. So Gletow did something about it.

She founded TAR to find loving homes for every animal they have.  “A group of volunteers and I formed Trenton Animals Rock as a way to dedicate resources solely to the dogs in the Trenton, New Jersey community, and it’s since become so much more than that,” Gletow said. 

Since then they have created programs designed to help residents vaccinate and feed their pets and even have taken the Trenton Animal Shelter euthanasia ratio down to less than 2%.

“We now are contracted through the city of Trenton to manage all animal welfare services for the shelter. we basically run the Trenton animal shelter. We do everything outside of Animal Control, which is still provided by the city.” Gletow said. 

To find out information about programs like getting your dog vaccinated for free text 609-540-6885 for free. For more information about other programs or re-homing your animal’s email infor@trnj.org.

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