“Take me to your tiny home” reads a sign hanging above a rather luxurious-looking cat-lounge. “I leap tall buildings in a single bound,” adorns a topmost cubby, garnished with a black and white cat.
If you want to kick it with some Instagram-worthy cuties this weekend, go no further than Manhattan’s new Pet Adoption Center that opened on Tuesday at 307 West Broadway.
The state-of-the art facility showcases adoptable animals from nine local and regional organizations, including the Animal Cares Centers of NYC (ACC) “in a gallery style setting.” They get the full-treatment until they get new homes.
It also has a 24-hour nursery devoted entirely to bottle-feeding the most vulnerable of the homeless pet population and a neo-natal unit designed for newborns rejected by their mothers—very common during the summer, “kitten season.”
The Pet Adoption Center, launched by Best Friends Animal Society, is in coordination with their new national initiative to lead a coalition of nearly 1,800 animal activist organizations, to furthering a “no-kill” philosophy and was established to raise awareness of the nearly 5,500 dogs and cats in the U.S. sent to permanent slumber every day.
It’s a “mission control center” to educate visitors and spread the word about implementing a national policy for a 90 percent save-rate by 2025. The current national average is 69 percent.
“New York has done an incredible job and been on the verge of being a no kill city,” said Elizabeth Jensen, executive director of Best Friends Animal Society. “In 2004, New York had a less than 50 percent save rate, and finished 2016 with a save rate of 89 percent which is incredible.”
The Pet Adoption Center is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
