Erie County SPCA holds 22nd radiothon

WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WIVB) — The sights and sounds of phones ringing, people clicking online, and people walking in to donate are causing a lot of tails to wag at the Erie County SPCA.

“When I hear the phones ringing, I see donations coming in online, I know that next year we will be able to keep providing our services to the community the way that we’re doing now.” said Gina Lattuca, the chief communications officer for the SPCA serving Erie County.

According to the SPCA, they rely on solely on donations to continue operations and causes that help a variety of animals with paws and claws.

“It’s not just an adoption center, we don’t just work with dogs or just cats–we work with wildlife, we have a fully operating wildlife rehabilitation center we have an educational farm, working with farm animals, we are doing animal curelty investigations, education programs, pet therapy visits,” said Lattuca.

She also added that they also try to help families keep their animals in their homes, by helping with some of the obstacles that could be hard for families to provide for their animals.

“If we can remove the reason why people have to surrender in the first place, we can keep a pet in a loving home, keep families together, and not have as many animals coming to the shelter system, and that’s really what the goal is, not having as many animals in the shelter,” said Lattuca.

“The whole mission is for the animals and it’s just an incredible job that they’re doing,” said Susan Rose, a morning show host for WBEN. “As much as I am a SPCA supporter on the air trying to help them every year, I’ve also adopted a couple of animals that have been brought so much love to my life and my family’s life, and we’ve had a dog and a cat from here, and I don’t know what I’d do without the SPCA.”

For the radiothon they partner with both WBEN and The Wolf Radio stations who help shine a spotlight not just on the programs they provide, but the stories the SPCA continues to create for the community.

“My favorite part is probably being able just to tell people what the SPCA does, I think people think of the SPCA and they think oh dogs and cat, but it’s so much more than that,” said Liz Mantel, a morning show host with 107.7. & 104.7 The Wolf. “It’s about keeping animals in their homes, it’s the resources they have for community members that might need a little bit of help, the wildlife department, I don’t think a lot of people know about.”

The 22nd year of the radiothon is 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday but you can still help support the SPCA Erie County by donating, volunteering or adopting. You can find more information on their website here.

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Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.

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