Englewood animal shelter has massive drop-off in volunteers, fears for its future

Stephanie Noda, NorthJersey.com
·3 min read
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ENGLEWOOD — A city-based animal shelter has continued to see a massive drop-off in volunteers, making it difficult to run day-to-day operations and causing fear for its future.

As a volunteer-run, no-kill animal rescue group, START II — Save the Animals Rescue Team II — doesn’t receive funding from the state or local government. The group was started about 41 years ago in Elmwood Park by Marge Kayne, who moved the operation to a larger facility in Rockland County, New York, for about 15 years.

The animal shelter put out a call last year describing a need for volunteers, but did not have much success in retaining long-term volunteers. The shelter lost a lot of volunteers during the pandemic, and most of them haven’t returned.

Jodi Lepera, a shelter manager at the Start II, an animal shelter in Englewood, looks at two adoptable kittens.
Jodi Lepera, a shelter manager at the Start II, an animal shelter in Englewood, looks at two adoptable kittens.

"It’s very strange, since people will call [saying] that they want to be volunteers and they either don’t show up or they come and say, 'This isn’t for us — we aren’t being paid,' " Kayne said.

Volunteers who said they would come to help have disappeared, such as a Boy Scout group that didn’t show up to paint and someone who came once and left after half a day.

"We can’t operate like that," said Diane Errichiello, a public relations volunteer for the shelter. "We’re in dire need of volunteers."

Last year, the shelter had about 40 active volunteers, which was already below the 75 needed. This year, this number has shrunk even more, to 30, Kayne said. Right now, the shelter is housing about 30 cats and 10 dogs, and people aren't adopting as readily as they did during the height of the pandemic, she said.

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Another problem is the outdoor dog cages. Errichiello described them as "completely rotted out" at this point. The cages cost upward of $40,000, and Kayne is desperately seeking anyone in the community who could repair them.

Errichiello said she has a personal fear of the shelter having to close one day if they don’t find more help.

"We don’t have the volunteers that are handy," she said. "We’re mostly women, and a majority of the people are in their 70s or older, or they’re working."

Although the most dire need is at the Englewood shelter, START II also needs help socializing cats at the Wayne Petsmart store. The group also helps out at the Paramus Petsmart location, but it has enough volunteers there at the moment.

Supply chain issues, including the lack of truck drivers, has caused slower stocking of shelves at stores and has contributed to a decrease in canned food donations for the cats and dogs, Kayne said.

Beyond volunteering, gift cards are the next-best way to support the shelter. Kayne can be reached at 732-330-6692.

For more information about START II and to donate online, visit sites.google.com/view/save-the-animals-rescue-team-2/. Gift cards can be mailed to START II at P.O. Box 177, Elmwood Park, NJ 07407.

Stephanie Noda is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: noda@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @snoda11 

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Englewood NJ animal shelter START II searching for volunteers