Services Provided
Animal Fostering & Adoption
CRA facilitates the fostering and adoption of various homeless animals in the Chesapeake area. These animals may come from shelters, other rescues, owner surrenders, be strays, or other sources. After the org’s initial intake of the animal, the animal is placed into an available foster home, provided any necessary veterinary care, and listed for adoption. Animals stay in their foster home until an acceptable applicant has been identified and approved. After adoption, the animal is brought to their new home, opening back up a slot in that foster home to help another animal in need.
Volunteering, Training, Mentoring & Retention
CRA is entirely made up of volunteers working out of various locations across the Chesapeake Bay Area. At its core, CRA is a community-based people organization which strongly values passion, teamwork, volunteer wellbeing and healthy communication between all volunteers. We seek to foster this culture by routinely assessing how volunteers are feeling and performing, rotating positions routinely and providing training as needed. This facilitates cross-training of skills, allowing each volunteer to develop both an understanding of all roles available as well as fluency in multiple positions. This distributes power and minimize risk for the organization, while also allowing all volunteers to gain exposure to multiple roles to ensure teammates can continuously engage and contribute in a way they find personally fulfilling.
TNR
TNR involves the trapping of stray animals, often in local cat colonies, and transportation of animals to and from a veterinary clinic for examination, vaccinations, spay/neuter and ear tipping. Spay/neuter programs can decrease the number of homeless animals entering shelters, the number of calls to Animal Control, the number of community animals euthanized, the negative impact on the natural wildlife population that ferals can present, risks to animals health and wellbeing, risks to human health (e.g., toxoplasmosis, rabies, etc.), and financial hardship for some animal caretakers. Further, spay and neuter brings behavioral benefits that can protect a pet from being relinquished to a shelter or roaming away from home. Reaching underserved populations is the most effective way to decrease state euthanasia rates and reduce costs of euthanizing homeless pets, making accessibility of vet care, information and TNR another fundamental pillar of CRA’s work. To apply for TNR services, please fill out the interest form here.
Education & Outreach
Most community citizens are unaware of how many animals are euthanized annually or even of proper animal care and handling procedures. Research suggests knowledge of these facts enhances animal treatment, community giving to nonprofits and engagement with the animal community. As such, educational campaigns can work to increase rates of adoption and fostering within a community and also act to improve the quality of life for existing pets or stray animals. Further, enhanced awareness of lost animals within the community can increase the likelihood of animals being reunited with owners, enhancing their safety and wellbeing as well. Thus, development and dissemination education makes up a core component of CRA’s infrastructure. Education resources may take the form of one-on-one consultations, public talks, virtual/in-person training, videos, informative infographics and flyers, etc. which are often dissemination via social media, at events or through email campaigns.