Ramapo Bergen Animal Refuge, Inc.

Pit Stop meets Community Cats – Please help us to spay / neuter community pets in need!  Every donation will help save countless lives!


The Pit Stop program is a free spay / neuter program offered to the Paterson, NJ community to decrease the growing culture of Pit bull breeding and fighting.  We have recently implemented a Community Cats program that goes hand-in-hand with Pit Stop, offering a free spay / neuter program aimed at low income families to decrease the unintentional breeding and abandonment of cats.  Every $150 saves another dog, and every $75 saves another cat from a life of trauma.


This area is low income and is saturated with dog breeding and fighting, overwhelmingly with Pit bulls.  The number of stray and feral cats is shocking, as breeding is overwhelmingly unintentional and due to a lack of spay / neuter resources.  The lack of resources and humane education has created a growing and already large problem.


Pit bull puppies and kittens are handed out on the street or sold.  Many end up in animal control, and many more end up on the streets, tied in yards or involved in dog fighting (cats / kittens are sadly used as bait).  It has been our experience that very few are spayed or neutered.  The lack of spay / neuter also creates additional concerns medically and behaviorally causing families to surrender their pets or put them outside. 


Many residents are open to spay / neuter options but are not actively seeking these options.  That is where WE come in.  Participants will have their pets picked up and brought to a veterinarian for a spay or neuter, as many residents do not have access to transportation.  RBARI will provide any other needed medical care, returning the pet with food and supplies to continue to build our relationship with the community.  


The goal is to promote proper humane education and decrease breeding.  Over time our hope is to change the outlook of the community with regards to animal welfare.  This program will save hundreds of dogs and cats from a live of pain and suffering.

Please make a donation now - no amount is too small!

Just a week ago, twenty cats were living in a trailer facing eviction outdoors with threats of poisoning by neighbors.  And, today, with your support, they have hope thanks to an innovative partnership between rescuers, the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge, Inc and two New England shelters with a demand for adoptable cats.  With your support for their medical care and transport, together we can immediately save TWENTY lives and kick-start this lifesaving collaboration as we send these cats on a special journey to their forever homes. 

The owner of these cats had fallen ill, lived without hot water, spent her last dollar to care for and feed the cats she had rescued from outside, and her trailer was days away from being condemned.  She had called and emailed countless rescues for years with no reply.  But, when she called RBARI, we answered and immediately took the trip to New York to see how we could help. 

What we saw was heartbreaking.  The home was clean, and these cats were obviously loved and cared for, but twenty cats within a trailer that structurally was falling apart was too much for her to handle, both physically and financially.  Over the years, these cats had shown up at her door in need, and she had done her very best to care for them and provide medical care, despite being on disability due to chronic illness from lupus.  She spent her last dollar on cat food, spay / neuter and their care.  She was desperate to help these cats, many of which needed medical attention that love just couldn’t fix and was beyond her means. 

 
We knew we had to help, and we knew time was limited.  Amazingly, we had just signed on to a partnership with two New England rescues / shelters, one in Maine and one in Vermont.  They have a shortage of adoptable cats – an incredible and almost unfathomable dream come true for so many cats in desperate need.  Sadly, we live in an area where cats lose their lives daily for sheer lack of space, so we quickly mobilized to secure this partnership.  Our goal was to immediately rescue cats in our community and in kill shelters that had no place to go.  This partnership could not have come at a better time for these twenty cats.  Without this option for placement, RBARI would have been unable to accommodate them all, but with this opportunity and collaboration with local rescues, we can now help ALL TWENTY CATS!



TIME IS LIMITED for these cats.  They need to be out of the trailer by the end of the week, at which time, the weather will warm up, the septic will back up, the electric is being turned off and their home will be condemned by the health department, rendering them all homeless.  Please make a donation to help us save these cats and provide them with the medical care, daily care and transport along their journey to a new life.


Your donation today will help us to save these beautiful cats, as well as initiate a program that will save homeless cats in our community and in local kill shelters that will otherwise face euthanasia.  Thank you for your support of this innovative partnership to save these lives, and so many more!

Finch is struggling to breathe.  Please get her the surgery she needs this Thanksgiving to finally find peace and happiness!


Finch’s life hasn’t been an easy one.  Growing up in a massive hoarding home with special needs, it was a miracle that she even survived.  Finch is a fighter though, and she is still with us fighting to survive and fighting to find her forever home. First, however, Finch needs major surgery to help her to breathe.  We are seeking funds to give Finch a new life this Thanksgiving.
 
Finch is two years old and was rescued from a hoarding home last year by RBARI.  The conditions in the home were truly unspeakable.  It is heartbreaking that she had to live that way, and incredible that she survived,  but Finch still lives with daily discomfort in every breath that she takes.

Finch wheezes when she breathes.  She is able to eat, drink, play a little and use the litter box without issue, but it is uncomfortable for her to breathe.  Our hearts broke for Finch to finally be safe and cared for but not able to be at peace.  We sought out immediate medical help.  The cause was undetermined and treatments unsuccessful, so we got a second opinion, and next a specialist.  Finch had a CT scan and rhinoscopy done to finally determine a diagnosis. Testing and diagnostics have cost RBARI thousands, but we are committed to Finch and finally helping her to breathe comfortably.
 
Finch was diagnosed with Nasopharyngeal Stenosis, which means that the area above her soft pallet in not opening wide enough when inhaling, which is affecting Finch's ability to move air back and forth and properly into the lungs. This is affecting Finch’s quality of life and causing her to struggle to breathe.

Finch needs a stent surgery to permanently correct this condition and AMC in New York is the only hospital in our area that effectively can do this surgery.  Ironically, Finch’s consult and surgery can be scheduled for Thanksgiving day. 

RBARI staff is eager to help Finch finally breathe without effort and have offered to drive her into New York City for a consult and surgery on Thanksgiving.  Surgery will be same-day, so we need to raise the funds now to be able to help our sweet girl breathe easy for the holidays. 

Please make a donation towards Finch’s surgery.  No amount is too small to give this little girl peace and comfort.  Please also share her story in hopes of finding Finch a home for the holidays.