Help For Pets in Charles County, MD

02/14/2025

Today our Pet Food Bank was in Baden and Accokeek with cat and dog food, harnesses, leashes and dog sweaters. Our partnership with Community Support Systems helps so many folks who are struggling to feed themselves and care for their pets. We always enjoy meeting our four legged friends, and it gives us a chance to discuss other services including flea and tick preventive, vaccinations and access to spay/neuter surgery.

02/13/2025

Help For Pets will have two outreach events on Friday February 14. We will be at St. Paul's Episcopal Church food pantry in Baden from 9:30 am until 10:30 am. We will be at Faith United Methodist Church in Accokeek from 11am until noon. We will have free dog and cat food and information about the services we have available for our community. It will be drive thru only- please stay in your car.

02/12/2025

02/11/2025

Hi everyone! 👋

We are super excited to announce that ASD will be celebrating LOVE month this Friday February 14th. Please join us for adoption specials, giveaways and lots of showcasing of our adoptable animals! 💖💌💗💟❣💓💘

Prince George’s County Animal Shelter
3750 Brown Station Rd
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
301.780.7200
Tues-Fri , 10am-6pm
Saturday, 10am-4pm
Arrive one hour before closing

02/09/2025

Once again we are putting our TNR program on hold as we wait to see what the weather brings us on Tuesday. It is just as frustrating for us as it is to everyone on our TNR waiting list. The safety and health of the outdoor cats is always our main concern, and we just will not take cats in for major surgery on Monday and then return them into the 4 to 8 inches of snow predicted. In the meantime we have been contacted about a severely injured community cat. Our time and focus will be on trapping that cat as soon as possible and getting the care it desperately needs. We appreciate your understanding.

02/09/2025

Note: If you're thinking about starting the argument against ear tipping, just don't. For months I've been out of patience defending the best way those of us doing TNR have of knowing a cat has been previously S/N. Please keep scrolling, thank you.

"Someone cared enough…
That’s what the corner of that cat’s ear being tipped (cut off) means. Someone cared enough. Enough to take time out of their day for that wild cat. To load up trapping supplies, go to the trapping location, set traps, monitor traps, and wait hours in most cases to fill traps. Then to bring them home in the traps and get them set up somewhere overnight and care for them. To drive them to the vet the next day, wait in line, and check them in for surgery. To pay (or get vouchers) for them to be spayed/neutered and vaccinated. If they are extra nice, they pay extra for flea meds and dewormer, knowing it will only last a month, but knowing that might be the only month of reprieve they have in their whole life from being eating alive. They care enough to drive back the next day and pick them up from the vet and in most cases house them for a day or two for recovery. In that time they care for them and make sure they are healing from surgery well. Then they drive them back to the trapping location and release them back to their outdoor home. From there, back home to clean and wash the traps and supplies to be ready for next time. This takes HOURS. Hours for a feral street cat that so many people hate.
So that feral cat you see out there with an ear tip, someone cared enough to take the time to give them a better life. To stop the cycle. To try to tackle the overpopulation and suffering. To help curb the testosterone driven territorial fights and spraying. To help that female not get pyometria from having litter after litter until she dies. To try to keep the numbers down so less people threaten their lives.
That indoor cat with the ear tip…someone cared a little extra. They saw that cat had potential to thrive in a life off the streets and they gave them that chance. They worked with them to overcome their fears so they wouldn’t live that harsh street life with a much shorter life expectancy than indoor cats.
That ear tip is how us trappers identify a cat that has already been spayed/neutered. It is a quick way to look at a feral cat and know if they have been fixed or not. This helps us not trap the same cats and send them through the stress of transport to the vet repeatedly, because we can see they have already been fixed. If a cat with an ear tip ends up in the trap, we can just release them immediately and keep trying until we get a cat that is not ear tipped.
Some people don’t like how the ear tip looks, or how painful it might be (it’s done under anesthesia during their spay/neuter surgery)… But that ear tip is a badge of honor. Someone cared enough."

Written by:
Amanda Rumble
Community Cat Care

02/06/2025

Help For Pets will have two outreach events on Friday February 7. We will be at St. Paul's Episcopal Church food pantry in Baden from 9:30 am until 10:30 am. We will be at Faith United Methodist Church in Accokeek from 11am until noon. We will have free dog and cat food and information about the services we have available for our community. It will be drive thru only- please stay in your car.

02/04/2025

It was a beautiful morning for trapping cats for TNR! We will continue trapping as long as the weather cooperates. We appreciate your patience as we work through our waiting list. We thank the Spay Spot in Upper Marlboro for fitting us in to their busy schedule tomorrow.

02/02/2025

Mark your calendars for our first Yard Sale Fundraiser of the year! We have many folks who follow us for the great deals we have at our tables for household items, jewelry, personal items and pet supplies. We will see you there on Saturday February 8 from 7am until 1pm at the Mt. Zion Church in Mechanicsville!!

01/30/2025

Help For Pets will have two outreach events on Friday January 31. We will be at St. Paul's Episcopal Church food pantry in Baden from 9:30 am until 10:30 am. We will be at Faith United Methodist Church in Accokeek from 11am until noon. We will have free dog and cat food and information about the services we have available for our community. It will be drive thru only- please stay in your car.

01/29/2025

It is not that relocation of feral cats cannot be done, but it is not an easy or always successful task. Let's take a closer look at the obstacles:

TERRITORIAL BEHAVIOR:
Feral cats form strong bonds with their territory and may attempt to travel long distances to return to their original home, putting them at risk of injury or death during the journey. There is a chance they will run away from their new location even if suitable acclimation was carried out. If there was no acclimation process, you can almost guarantee it.

STRESSFUL EXPERIENCE:
You will have to keep the kitty confined long enough so he can learn that this is his new home and you are the new feeder. This process is highly stressful for cats, especially since they are not socialized to humans and may not understand what is happening. It is also stressful for the human trying to care for the cat.

VACUUM EFFECT:
If cats are removed from an area, it is said that new cats will quickly move in to fill the space, meaning relocation does not actually reduce the population.

POTENTIAL FOR HARM IN NEW ENVIRONMENT:
A relocated cat may not be familiar with the new area's predators, food sources, or shelter options, increasing their risk of injury or starvation.

ETHICAL CONCERNS:
Many animal welfare organizations consider relocating feral cats as inhumane due to the potential for significant stress and danger to the animals.

🔸 What can you do instead? 🔸

TRAP-NEUTER-RETURN (TNR):
This method involves trapping feral cats, sterilizing them, vaccinating them, ear-tipping for identification, and then returning them to their original location.

PROVIDE FOOD AND SHELTER:
If you are concerned about a feral cat population, consider providing food and shelter in a designated area to help manage their numbers and reduce conflicts.

01/26/2025

01/26/2025

Nugget needs our help. We were contacted on Wednesday about a community cat with a large bruise on his side that had developed into a hematoma (blood clot). Unfortunately the hematoma broke open and the kitty had a large, deep bleeding wound. We worked with the caretaker to get a vet appointment before infection set in and Help For Pets agreed to pay the bill, since the caretaker had recently had a very large vet bill with one of her indoor cats. Nugget is now resting indoors with his caretaker and doing well so far. Our sincere thanks to the veterinarians and staff at PAWS in Indian Head for fitting him in to their busy surgery schedule, and to the kind caretaker for helping Nugget. He was also neutered, tested negative for FELV-FIV and vaccinated. We appreciate your donations and support that allows us to continue to help injured and sick community cats. It takes a village. We have a donation link below and paypal.me/helpforpetssmd

01/23/2025

Help For Pets will have two outreach events on Friday January 24. We will be at St. Paul's Episcopal Church food pantry in Baden from 9:30 am until 10:30 am. We will be at Faith United Methodist Church in Accokeek from 11am until noon. We will have free dog and cat food and information about the services we have available for our community. It will be drive thru only- please stay in your car.

01/17/2025

Our sincere thanks to everyone who donated towards Max's vet bill. He had a very deep puncture wound that had become infected. He was sedated, it was clipped and cleaned and he was given a long acting antibiotic injection. He was given his 3 year rabies vaccine and a topical medication to treat any ticks, fleas, ear mites and worms. He is resting comfortably indoors for at least a few days and ate all his dinner. We are so grateful to have such a caring community to help us with our community cats. And special thanks to Potomac Animal Wellness Services for fitting him in on a very busy day.

01/16/2025

Max needs our help. He is part of a public colony that has a wonderful caretaker who loves the cats. She has worked with us to keep them fed every day and healthy after we finished the colony TNR. Max has a large swelling on the left side of his face. We used the drop trap, transferred him to a regular trap and took him in today to be sedated, examined, treated and update his rabies vaccine. If you would like to help us cover his vet bill, the donation link is below, or you can use PayPal at paypal.me/helpforpetssmd Thank you!

01/09/2025

Due to icy conditions in the church parking lots, the food pantries have all been canceled for tomorrow, Friday January 10. Help For Pets will not be there distributing pet food tomorrow. We will continue pet food deliveries for our elderly, disabled, homebound and homeless folks as the weather allows. Thank you for understanding.

01/05/2025

We've been out all morning making sure all of our public cat colonies are ready for the snow. Styrofoam coolers are wrapped with heavy plastic with a brick inside to prevent tipping over and trapping the cats. The shelters are all stuffed with clean straw and up on pallets. Everyone has fresh warm water, warm canned cat food and dry food left inside feed totes out of the weather. Experience has taught us that the cats are smarter than people and will usually stay curled up sleeping until the snow stops. They love their outdoor home, and now we wait.