HEADS UP!

• PLEASE BE AWARE THAT IF YOU DONATE, YOU’RE DONATING TO THE PETITION SITE, CHANGE.ORG, NOT DELCO LOVES ANIMALS.
• THIS IS FOR DELAWARE COUNTY RESIDENTS ONLY

Rich and Lisa Small, founders of Delco Loves Animals, are asking Delaware County residents to support this petition by signing and sharing it with everyone they know in Delaware County. To find out more about Delco Loves Animals, find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Blogspot.

When the Delaware County SPCA closed its doors in 2011, something vital was lost. Since then, stray and abandoned animals have been left without a true safety net—and the burden has quietly fallen on everyday people. Neighbors, volunteers, rescuers, and caretakers have stepped up again and again, opening their homes, their wallets, and their hearts to animals with nowhere else to go.

They are exhausted.

People are feeding colonies before work and after dark. They are fostering animals in already-full homes. They are paying out of pocket for veterinary care, pleading with rescues for space, and watching too many animals fall through the cracks—not because they don’t care, but because there is no system left to catch them.

Delaware County has gone more than a decade without a dedicated animal welfare center. That absence has created a crisis not just for animals, but for the people who refuse to turn their backs on them.

That is why we are urgently calling for the creation of an Animal Welfare Center at the Don Guanella site in Marple Township.

Don Guanella has long been a place of care, dignity, and compassion for those in need. Transforming this site into an animal welfare center would honor that legacy—by protecting the most vulnerable among us and supporting the people who have been carrying this burden alone for far too long.

This site gives us something we haven’t had in years: hope. The space to bring rescue, intake, surrender support, medical care, rehabilitation, adoption, education, and community programs together under one roof. A place where animals are safe, and where rescuers and caretakers are no longer forced to operate in crisis mode.

It also offers room to grow—space for other animal-focused nonprofits and mission-aligned partners to work side by side, creating a true hub of compassion and collaboration for Delaware County.

Right now, Delaware County’s 49 municipalities operate separately, relying on fragmented animal control contracts that are costly, inconsistent, and often inadequate. Animals don’t understand municipal boundaries—and compassion shouldn’t stop at them either. By working together and pooling municipality resources, we can build a humane, reliable, countywide system that protects animals and serves residents better.

We are asking Delaware County to provide a building and land at the Don Guanella site—and we are asking Marple Township to support this vision through thoughtful zoning and planning. This is not an abstract idea. It is a real, achievable solution to a very real crisis.

An Animal Welfare Center at Don Guanella would save lives. It would give abandoned animals safety, care, and a path to a forever home. It would support Trap-Neuter-Return programs, foster and adoption efforts, and humane education—while finally giving rescuers and caretakers the backup they have been begging for.

Most importantly, it would tell this community something powerful: you don’t have to do this alone anymore.

We need your voice. We need your support.

By signing this petition, you are standing up for animals who cannot speak for themselves, for neighbors who are overwhelmed but still showing up, and for a future where compassion is matched with action.

Please join us. Sign the petition to support an Animal Welfare Center at the Don Guanella site—and help us turn exhaustion into hope.

HEADS UP! 

• PLEASE BE AWARE THAT IF YOU DONATE, YOU’RE DONATING TO THE PETITION SITE, CHANGE.ORG, NOT DELCO LOVES ANIMALS. 
• THIS IS FOR DELAWARE COUNTY RESIDENTS ONLY