Indraloka Animal Sanctuary was recently awarded a $40,000 grant from the Robert H. Spitz Foundation to help fund the NEPA Rescue Veterinary Clinic, the first animal care facility of its kind in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Submitted photo
Indraloka Animal Sanctuary, Dalton, announces the award of a $40,000 grant from the Robert H. Spitz Foundation to help fund the NEPA Rescue Veterinary Clinic, the first animal care facility of its kind in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Headed by fulltime Shelter Medicine specialist, Leslie Interlandi, DVM, and the sanctuary’s veterinary nurses and technicians, the clinic provides much-needed vet care to both the sanctuary’s animals and those in the care of shelter members of the NEPA Animal Welfare Collaborative.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Spitz Foundation for its generous grant. Because of these funds, innocent lives will be saved and untold suffering will ease,” Indraloka founder Indra Lahiri, PhD, says. “This grant will go a long way toward helping the animals who are in the greatest need and have been neglected the most due to the veterinary crisis in our area.”
The shortage of veterinary care in the US began before the pandemic and has snowballed into a dire situation. Short-staffed veterinary offices and hospitals can’t keep up with the need for services. Animals—and the people who love them—are suffering. Pet parents in NEPA often travel to Allentown and Philadelphia for emergency veterinary care because of the lack of 24/7 services available in Scranton and the surrounding areas.
Indraloka’s NEPA Rescue Veterinary Clinic, while not open to the public, will provide low-cost vet services to animals rescued through the NEPA Animal Welfare Collaborative, which will reduce the burden on all local veterinary offices, clinics and hospitals. In this way, everyone who cares for animals in NEPA benefits.
“Rescuing animals is only one part of an animal sanctuary’s or shelter’s job. In some ways, the harder work is making sure the animals are cared for. Without adequate vet care, it’s impossible to do the work all of us in the field of animal rescue need to do,” Dr. Lahiri says.
Administered by the Scranton Area Community Foundation, the Robert H. Spitz Foundation is a tax-exempt, private foundation that focuses its giving on animal welfare, family services, higher education, human services, individual liberties and youth development. Indraloka Animal Sanctuary provides “heaven on earth” for hundreds of rescued farmed animals for the rest of their lives. The sanctuary also provides free and low-cost educational programs and camps for children.
“Although I’ve never met Mr. Spitz, I think he’d be pleased to know he’s helping both animals and children through his foundation’s generosity to Indraloka,” Dr. Lahiri says. “Our job at the sanctuary is to continue to build the kind of organization that is worthy of this wonderful honor.”
