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HACKENSACK, N.J.
— There are no municipal animal shelters in the three
towns
Lysa DeLaurentis
serves as animal control officer. So she decided to
build her own.
She has
saved money to convert an old barn on her mother's
Wanaque, N.J.
, farm into a shelter for distressed animals. But
DeLaurentis, who rescues dogs, cats and other animals in
Woodland Park
,
Totowa
and
Garfield, N.J.
, got an unexpected boost from television celebrity
Rachael Ray
— who donated
$20,000
to her non-profit shelter project.
Accompanied
by a film crew, the TV host and celebrity chef surprised
DeLaurentis
Oct. 19
with a visit to her mother, Dee's, farm. Though she
expected a crew to film a segment about the non-profit
shelter for Ray's show, she didn't expect the star
herself.
"She
showed up in a tractor-trailer full of dog food,"
said DeLaurentis, who also is an agent with the
Passaic County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals
. "I was crying. She hugged me and she was just
like, the nicest person in the world."
Ray spent
about an hour with DeLaurentis touring the shelter site
and playing with some of the eight dogs she is currently
sheltering.
"Then,
just out of the blue, she handed me a check and she said
'This is to start you off,'" DeLaurentis said.
"She gave me the money to pay for the shelter's
construction."
The
$20,000
Ray donated would pay for the shelter's construction,
and she gave her a year's worth of Rachael Ray Nutrish
dog food, a dozen dog beds, a dozen fleece blankets and
a couple of cases of dog treats.
DeLaurentis
traveled to the "Rachael Ray Show" set in
New York City
on
Nov. 4
to tape her segment with Ray, which ran this week.
Ray's
assistant, Charlie, contacted DeLaurentis in March after
Ray learned that DeLaurentis' rescued two emaciated,
dehydrated Rottweilers that were abandoned on
Garret Mountain
.
"She
had helped me back then," DeLaurentis said.
"She sent me
$1,500
for the vet bills for Zak and Zena."
DeLaurentis
kept in touch, telling Charlie about her plans for the
shelter. She got a call from the show one
Friday, Oct. 16
; by the following Monday they were filming her on the
farm.
She
decided to build the shelter — part of her non-profit
All-Humane Animal Rescue Inc.
— because none of the three towns she services has a
state-licensed animal shelter.
"This
is going to be their shelter," she said.
In the
meantime, DeLaurentis holds animals in other licensed
shelters for the state-required seven-day quarantine
period.
The
non-profit
Passaic County SPCA
doesn't have an animal shelter either, DeLaurentis said.
When animals are seized on behalf of the organization,
they are housed in the closest shelter used by animal
control, DeLaurentis said.
As the
animal control officer for
Garfield
,
Totowa
and
Woodland Park
, DeLaurentis investigates animal cruelty cases and
rescues abandoned animals. She seizes animals from
owners who are unable or unwilling to care for them. In
the case of the abandoned Rottweilers, and in another
case in which a man dumped a dog and her puppies,
DeLaurentis sheltered them herself at the
Wanaque
farm.
State law
requires that animal control officers have a licensed
facility to impound animals for the required seven days
before they can be adopted. DeLaurentis presented her
plan to the state
Health Department
, and is now awaiting final approval from the borough
before completing the conversion and construction. She
said it will take about three weeks to convert the barn
to a shelter. The total cost of construction is about
$19,000
— the remaining money from Ray's donation would be
spent on shelter supplies, DeLaurentis said.
Dr.
Faye Sorhage
, the state public health veterinarian, said some
municipalities have had difficulty finding
state-licensed shelters to quarantine animals for the
required seven days.
"We
could always use new facilities in the state," she
said.
DeLaurentis
said she still can't believe that
Rachael Ray
paid for her new shelter.
"That
was a very, very nice surprise," she said.
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