BVSPCA Welcomes Shelter Animals From Harvey-Ravaged Areas

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) - Dozens of shelter animals from areas impacted by Hurricane Harvey made their way to the Delaware Valley this weekend.

It wasn't a short trip for these 43 dogs and cats.

"They started at shelters across Texas and Louisiana, they met in New Orleans, flew out into Manassas, Virginia," says Linda Torelli with the Brandywine Valley SPCA.

From there, Torelli says the animals were driven by van to one of two Brandywine Valley SPCA branch campuses.

"These are animals that were in the shelter prior to the hurricane and they're making space so family pets that were displaced can go into the shelters and find their families again," explains Torelli.

She and other staffers were there to greet the animals and help them out of their crates. There were lots of hugs and kisses during this part of the process.

Torelli calls this experience rewarding.

"All of the work we do is really exciting," she adds, "but when we know we're helping family pets get back to their families after a disaster it's huge. These animals otherwise wouldn't be alive."

And each of these animals are available to adopt as of Sunday, when a special promotion will be running.

"We're running a promotion that's called 'Adopt One, Save Two', says Torelli. "Any large, adult dog in our shelters can be adopted for free and what you're doing is saving the life of that one animal to make space for a hurricane victim to come in later this week."

But it's not just the dogs and cats that arrived this weekend that you can adopt,

"These Hurricane displaced animals need homes," Torelli says, "but the more animals you adopt locally through our shelter is going to allow us to enable us to bring more hurricane pets into the area."

At least 30 more dogs and cats are expected to be brought in mid week.

In:
• Delaware Valley
• Community
• Montgomery County
• Philadelphia