The Coalition to Protect Animals Locally, a non-profit, local organization whose mission is to support animals, has been donating pet food to organizations like Neighbors in Need, which operates seven food pantries in the Merrimack Valley and feeds over 500 families a week.
After being contacted by Andover's Linda Zimmerman, executive director of NIN, and told that CoPAL's prior two pet food donations were almost all gone, volunteers from CoPAL loaded up their minivan and on March 24 contributed more than another 600 pounds of pet food.
Statistics show that almost two-thirds of Massachusetts' residents have at least one pet, according to CoPAL's Lois Karfunkel. Over the past two years, according to the MSPCA, there has been a 110 percent increase in the number of pet owners who state that financial reasons caused them to surrender their family pets. To address these issues, CoPAL initiated its "Keeping Families Together" program to help families pay for items such as pet food.
CoPAL will hold its next meeting on Thursday, April 8, at Enterprise Bank in downtown Andover.
While the informal working meeting will run from noon to 2 p.m., volunteers are welcome to come for whatever time they may have available. At the meeting, the group will address CoPAL's Keeping Families Together pet food bank project, the extension of donated pet food to senior citizens, an upcoming Humane Education training day, an on-going cable TV project, current legislation affecting animal welfare, and other projects CoPAL has undertaken.
All are welcome to come. Lunch will be available. For more information, please contact Lois Karfunkel, 978 475 7985 or CoPAL at www.protectanimalslocally.org
