Commentary: Palm Valley Animal Society marks 50 years of saving lives

Keely Lewis

I’ve spent the last few months doing a deep dive into the history of Palm Valley Animal Society’s first 50 years. It’s a wild and wooly story with a happy ending, but it’s never been a smooth ride. About the only common denominator throughout has been our partnership with the City of McAllen, whom we honored last Saturday at our Puppy Love Golden Gala with our first-ever Visionary Award. Not only have they stuck with us through multiple rate increases and given us extra help when needed, they’ve made their own proactive changes in how they approach their lost and stray animal population.

In accepting the award from PVAS board president Barbara Guerra, City Commissioner Seby Haddad and City Manager Roy Rodriguez spoke to the community’s responsibilities in addressing the Valley’s animal welfare challenges. Ultimately, the solution lies not with the shelters or with the city itself but with each citizen realizing that spaying and neutering their pets is a basic civic responsibility, adopting homeless animals is more compassionate than buying from a breeder or roadside seller, and helping lost animals get back home is something we can all play an active role in.

It was especially meaningful for several of our key partners to have been in attendance that night, the very ones who have made such a difference in our lifesaving in the Valley. We honored five of them with our first Legacy Awards:

The Andrews Family Foundation, which helped us build The Laurie P. Andrews Center and continues to regularly support PVAS.

Best Friends Animal Society, which helped turn our lifesaving around, from 33% in 2017 to 91.6% in 2020. They invested manpower, training and significant resources to help show us the way. Best Friends continues to help in our rescue efforts whenever possible.

The Edinburg Foundation, which helped in a big way to get the land for our Andrews Center, fund its construction and establish an endowment fund for future repairs. Although no longer in existence, this organization’s legacy continues.

H-E-B, which provides most of the food for our dogs and cats every year, tens of thousands of pounds of Heritage Ranch plus a percentage of their sales of it. Keeping the thousands of animals in our care well-fed has never been an issue thanks to their generosity.

Petco Love, which played a pivotal role in our funding as we pursued greater lifesaving, awarding not one but two major grants, and continues to help us in many ways. Our increased lifesaving would not have been possible without the generosity of Petco Love under the leadership of Susanne Kogut.

Throughout our celebration, the love and support of our community was evident, in the amazing generosity of our 51 sponsors and bidders at our two auctions plus more than $60,000 donated that night. We’re still finalizing the numbers, but we raised more than $450,000! One of the more poignant moments was a tribute to Lori Ruiz, who always promoted adoptions from our shelters to everyone around her and was with us that night in spirit.

Our 50-year history began in 1974 when a group of citizens formed the Upper Valley Humane Society and took over the operation of McAllen’s shelter in south McAllen. Ten years later, the Trenton Center was built and is still in full use 40 years later, with thousands of dogs and cats coming through each year. We’ve had name and logo changes through the years, but our mission has remained, doing the best we know how to help the lost and homeless animals in our community.

During his acceptance speech Saturday night, Rodriguez announced that the city of McAllen is partnering with PVAS to rebuild Trenton Center into a shelter the entire community can be proud of. As we look ahead to our next 50 years, it seems fitting that our partnership that started with McAllen 50 years ago is coming full circle. Rodriguez said he feels certain that McAllen has the right partner in PVAS, and we feel exactly the same way.

Keely Lewis is board secretary of Palm Valley Animal Society and a member of our Board of Contributors.

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