RITA’S OF FLANDERS VILLAGE MALL 286 US HIGHWAY 206, FLANDERS EXPIRES 10.15.2021
No. 19 Vol. 9
www.mypaperonline.com
EXPIRES 10.15.2021
September 2021
Hackettstown Woman’s Passion for Animals Reaches Mount Pleasant Animal Shelter and Beyond
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By Henry M. Holden essica Garrison worked at the Mount Pleasant Animal Shelter in East Hanover as a Kennel and Adoption Counselor for several years. “I left to pursue more education in the medical field, and I’ve been doing veterinary technician work for the last 12 years. I’ve been working with a rescue group for several years now, just trying to help make connections between the animals and the people adopting a dog or a cat.” Garrison felt a real need to come back to rescue work full-time, so she came back to Mount Pleasant to work as the shelter manager. “We are currently using Pilots to the Rescue, an animal rescue organization. We’re making connections with all these awesome transport groups in New Jersey, and around the country.” Currently Mount Pleasant Animal Shelter has two places where they receive the animals. One is Fairfield, and another is Morristown (airport). It was the Morristown Airport where her organization landed with 120 animals from El Paso, Texas. “Our shelter was a hub station to coordinate the logistics to transport more than 350 animals to shelters around the
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country,” said Garrison. “On July 1, the animals were transported from El Paso, Texas to California, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. We transported 120 dogs, cross-country to Morristown in a charter airplane operation. More than 100 more went to Chino, California. It was the largest transport of animals in this country so far. The effort was a huge success thanks to the efforts by Bissell Pet Foundation and other rescue organizations.” The animals transported to New Jersey were received by several rescue groups from, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and New Jersey. They met at the Morristown Airport. A ground team comprised of numerous nationwide organizations formed to reduce the number of animals waiting adoption on private charter airplanes to other shelters across the country. Garrison coordinated the ground team. Their job was to bring the dogs out, get them into their crates with water, and secure the crates, sort the labels for all the different organizations, putting them on the airplane, and then flying across the country. “I was a chaperone on the plane for the new animals,” said Garrison. “We also had seven cats in the flight.” Garrison lost her dog a few months ago and just fell in love with one of the dogs that she was transporting from Texas. “So, I adopted her.” Animals fill a void for a lot of people. “We are essentially matchmakers to the animal and the family. We are adoption counselors, so we have a conversation with the family and find out what their views are, and what their lifestyle is. We try and match the animal to the people. This is a sitdown, face-to-face meeting with the family that could take an hour or a couple of days depending on circumstances, with multiple visits to make sure that we are making the best match possible. If there is a dog already in the home, we must make sure that the two will get along, so that may require an extra visit or two to the proposed home.” The adoption fee for dogs is $300 if they’re eight months or older and for puppies it’s $375. That covers all the vaccinations, the microchip, some training, and they’re spayed or neutered before the final adoption. Garrison says, “We are always looking for foster homes to help take the dogs out of the shelter even if it’s just temporary. The kennel is a stressful environment for them, especially the long timers. We try to reach out and get them into a foster home not with the intention of adopting but to give the animal a break from its environment. It’s a job that
Jessica Garrison and the latest member of her family, rescued by Jessica from a shelter in El Paso. (Courtesy Jessica Garrison)
not everyone could do, but those who can do it will love it.” The matching process is just that; a process. Garrison says, “We really strive to make the best match for families, and we will do whatever it takes to find the right animal for the family. We work with the animals daily to get them ready for their adopted homes as far as training and socializing. We are very compassionate; we take a lot of animals from high-risk situations, so we’re giving them a second chance, especially animals that are at risk for euthanasia. We have training sessions with our dogs every Sunday, and those with extra needs get one-on-one training. We are always a resource. We help if there are any real issues in the home and throughout the animal’s life.” Mount Pleasant Animal Shelter is located in East Hanover. For more information, visit www.njshelter.org.