With 2024 in full swing, we are reflecting on 2023. So many amazing things happened thanks to friends like you who have volunteered, donated, adopted, and more! With your help, we were able to change the lives of thousands of pets and families throughout the Greater Rochester area last year. Here are just a few highlights of what we made possible by working together.
Foster teams provided restful recovery to 1,807 animals in 2023!
The majority of pets that come to Lollypop Farm need veterinary care, behavioral support, and time to grow or heal. Depending on their needs, they may receive months of care before they can be made available for adoption. The foster care program provides the opportunity to rest and recover in a loving environment.
Here is an amazing foster “tail” from foster care volunteer Jill Gress:
“A plea went out to the foster group looking for those “experienced “ with feral kittens to help socialize. I hadn’t done this before, but with all the training I have had, I wanted to give them a chance. They were about three months old when I picked them up. They were terrified, hissing and swatting. Their world had turned upside down, so it was easy to understand. It took quite a few days before they would let me touch them. Eventually, they realized I was the food lady and would eat from my hands and let me touch them. They went from climbing up the window blinds to laying in my lap to snuggling in a bed with their new owners who sent a picture.”
Interested in making a resolution to start fostering in 2024? Learn more here.
The Animal Emergency Response Team
With an increase in the number of large animal intakes and hoarding cases, the Lollypop Farm Animal Emergency Response Team (AERT) was officially established in 2023. The Animal Emergency Response Team is dispatched to rescue animals from crisis or hazardous conditions created by natural disasters, animal abuse, hoarding, neglect, and other emergencies. With specialized training, the team ensures that all operations are conducted safely, humanely, and with minimal stress to the pets involved.
In October 2023, the team took part in training for disaster response and emergency sheltering by Code 3 Associates. The Animal Emergency Response Team is committed to the safety of all animals and people involved when disaster strikes.
AERT was ready in September when a total of 209 cats were seized from a house in Gates. In desperate need of veterinary care and proper food and water, the Animal Emergency Response Team brought the cats to Lollypop Farm. The majority of the cats have since found loving homes thanks to the support of community members like you.
Pet Food Pantry – Keeping families together
In 2023, the Lollypop Farm Pet Pantry distributed 29,264 pounds of pet food! Thanks to the efforts of donors like you, pet food was brought to local food pantries and given out to families during this challenging economic time.
The Pet Food Dump, our holiday pet food drive sponsored with help from Dump Guru, accounted for 5,898 pounds of food in December. Thanks to generous donations from our community to the Pet Food Pantry, families were able to keep their pets in loving homes despite the added economic pressures of the holiday season.
Humane Education Team at School 19
2023 brought fun and learning to the Dr. Charles T. Lunsford School 19 students, a part of the Rochester City School District. Through the RedRover Readers program, students read along with stories of how to care for pets and how pets communicate their feelings, then discussed the stories. They even created the perfect habitats for hamsters after reading the story “Jeannie Houdini: A Hamster’s Tale” through drawings! Stories from Gryphon Press are used in the program to help celebrate the human-animal bond and to give kids fun examples for learning.
The fun continues for the kids in 2024, and they recently got to meet two new friends. Pet Assisted Therapy dogs Melinda, Finley, and Harvey came for a visit in early January, which was a big hit with the kids!
The Klingenstein Veterinary Clinic
In a time of veterinary crisis, the amazing team at the Klingestein Veterinary Clinic has done amazing work to help numerous pets not only at Lollypop Farm but for community pets as well.
9,131 surgeries were performed in 2023, including surgeries for Lollypop Farm pets like dentals, and spay and neuter surgeries for community pets through the Spay/Neuter Incentive Program (S.N.I.P.).
Lollypop Farm Breaks Ground!
The Kindness for All Kind campaign kicked off this summer with a Groundbreaking next to Elmer! Kindness for All Kind is a $ 20-million-dollar regeneration project that will transform Lollypop Farm into one of the country’s foremost community-based animal welfare and education centers.
The Karpus Family Foundation Learning Center will feature classrooms, educational exhibits, and an inviting learning, advocacy, and growth atmosphere. Education is the best way to prevent animal cruelty; therefore, this Center will be a haven for fostering empathy, compassion, and the humane treatment of animals and each other in our community.
A new Farmyard area will expand pasture size to improve animal habitats, provide an isolation area for animals needing time or rehabilitation, and provide more species-specific needs than ever before.
Other infrastructure changes will include an expanded dog kennel area, a storage area for Pet Food Pantry supplies and other needs, and a more easily accessible donations area. Learn more here.
Happy Tails!
Rocky caught the attention of so many social media followers this year with the sad picture taken after a sleepover return. Rocky held his face down low, dejected that his chance at a home didn’t work out. But there was hope! Thanks to the efforts of thousands in our community, Rocky was able to find a family who came all the way from Buffalo just to adopt this sweet 3-year-old boy.
But he wasn’t the only one to find a new home! 4,198 pets found their way into loving homes last year.
2023 was truly an amazing year, full of Happy Tails of fostering, adoptions, and keeping families together! We are excited to see what this new year will bring and the lives we will change in collaboration with you and our community.
