By Lauren Parfidio

Would you like to adopt an animal as part of your family?

Pets Alive in Westchester is a no-kill shelter with many animals looking for homes.

Pets Alive’s mission is to improve the lives of animals including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention, and education.

This shelter is now the largest no-kill shelter in the tri-state area. It has been around for over 80 years. They are located in Elmsford, New York on five acres in a 46,000 square foot modern facility.

This shelter has about 250 dogs and 300 cats of all ages looking to be a part of a loving home.

“Adopting is highly variable. About 10-20 pets a week are adopted. Our intake is only 10. Our intake is less than our adoption because we are recovering from being overcrowded,” said the manager John Sibley.

Pets Alive in Westchester has made great progress in the past six months, said Sibley. Adoptions and volunteers have gone up. Every single animal is out of cages and in free rooms. However, they are still animals looking for homes.

Pets Alive in Westchester tries to find homes for the animals through events, radio stations, facebook, and twitter.

“We did have a Valentine’s Day event coming up,” says Sibley.

The event was held on Feb. 13 from noon until 3:30pm in Elmsford, NY. This adoption event was to encourage people to come in and adopt a new member to their family.

The animals come from all different backgrounds. Some pets were found, some pets were donated when people were moving, some owners couldn’t take care of their pets anymore, and some were rescued from kill shelters.

Not only do they have cats and dogs; this shelter also cares for rabbits.

If people can’t adopt, there are other ways to help these loving animals, said Sibley. People can donate financially monthly. Donating monthly can be a lifeline for these animals.

“This shelter needs help financially,” said Sibling.

Donating $18 a month can be used for vet care, utilities, staffing, and other expenses.

“Make a difference and help animals that need love and support” is the motto of the shelter.

Those interested in “window shopping” for pets can log on to Petfinder.com, which is a directory of over 13,000 animal shelters in North America. The site has photos of over 342,000 pets that are available for adoption.

While pet adoption is free, some states are deciding to charge potential new owners for the pets. In Illinois, customers must now pay $15 for adoption, if lawmakers can have their way as a new proposal was pitched last week.

“With regard to the price of the pet, the fee is nominal,” said Sen. Linda Holmes to the Associated Press.