TOWNFSOLK RALLY TO GIVE ANIMALS A SECOND CHANCE 
by MICHAEL CAPUZZO

Good news for cats and dogs and their best friends: Second Chance Animal Sanctuaries, a Tioga County volunteer group that has operated for years with a lot of heart and a little money, is planning to dramatically expand its operations to fill the gap created by the imminent closing of the SPCA. An unprecedented band of local animal lovers, businessmen, music lovers, artists, bikers, and farm widows are rallying around the volunteer group to help build a new animal shelter in the county.

The six-year-old animal adoption group, which has operated out of volunteers’ homes, took a giant step toward achieving its dream in December when Dorothy Condict, a cat lover and widow in her 70s who lives on a 120-acre family farm in Holliday, donated ten acres of her farm to Second Chance to construct a facility for homeless cats. Second Chance plans also to build a facility for dogs on the land. 

The deed to the land passed to Second Chance this past December, and the community responded with record fund-raising efforts for Second Chance in March. In addition to the $3017.16 raised for the animal-shelter drive by the Mountain Home Winter Jazz Fest at the Penn Wells Hotel in Wellsboro on March 1, the Artisan’s Shoppe at 17 Crafton Street held an auction on March 22 and raised more than $1,000 for Second Chance. The animal-adoption group had never received more than $3,000 in one contribution before.

Artisan’s Shoppe owner Wendy Reber held the auction, saying “Second Chance desperately needs our support” to make up for the loss of the Wellsboro branch of the SPCA in the months ahead. Musician Scott Turner performed at the Artisan’s Shoppe auction, and auctioneer Randy Jelliff peddled art donated by artists including Elizabeth Berkowitz, the Mountain Home outdoor columnist, Roger Shipley, Pamela Burket, and a number of others.

The Mountain Home Jazz Festival, planned as a fund-raiser for Second Chance, involved sponsorship and planning by David Tews of Indigo Wireless, Bob and Linda Williams of Thornapple Design, Tioga County singer Juanita Jobst, general manager Ed Murphy of the Penn Wells Hotel, and many others. In June, a motorcycle rally at Fred’s Woodshed, including a canyon ride and hot dog cook-off, will benefit Second Chance, and a Mansfield memorial race that once benefited the SPCA now will donate to the volunteer group, Cook said.

Cook is grateful for the outpouring of support, and hopeful it will continue. The group plans to build the Dorothy Condict Feline Center, an eighty-by-100 foot house for homeless cats, on the land. That structure alone, even modestly designed, will cost $200,000 to $300,000, she said. 

“Of course we know we are going to have to get major grants to build this. We’re in the process of finding people to help us write grants right now, and we’re hopeful our state officials will be able to bring us substantial support to make up for the loss of the SPCA.

“We’re also planning to build a facility for dogs on the ten acres. Obviously, that’s a huge need. If a dog lover out there wants to make this dream come true for our best friends, or someone wants to donate a barn or help us build a structure, we’re eager to talk to them. This is going to take all of us pulling together.”

It was a hard winter for cats and dogs in Tioga County and environs, Cook said. First, the Pennsylvania SPCA announced plans to close its Wellsboro branch on U.S. 6, and open a new Potter County facility. The local SPCA, still open for the time being, then began euthanizing animals at a greater rate as a result of budget trims by state authorities.

The burden fell on Cook and her small army of volunteers.

Ever since the SPCA announced plans to close, she has been inundated with calls.
“We have a tremendous need for people to foster cats or dogs in their homes,” she said. It’s especially difficult for senior citizens to turn in their dogs and cats when they can no longer take care of them, and have no choice but to have their animals put down,” she said.

Now, and Cook hopes, even more so in the future, they’ll get a second chance.