08/30/2026
Important/Informative Delco Dawgs PSA…
Delco Dawgs Rescue —
Understanding the Animal Welfare Crisis in Delaware County:
As many of you know, Delco Dawgs Rescue is working toward closing our intake. The reasons for this decision—primarily personal—have been explained many times.
What is important to understand is that Delco Dawgs is not alone. Across our region, rescues are closing their intakes, reaching maximum capacity, struggling financially, or closing their doors altogether. This is an extremely difficult time for animal rescues, shelters, municipalities, and, most importantly, the animals who depend on them. Burnout and rescue fatigue are very real. Many rescues and organizations are out of funds, out of fosters and having trouble adopting.
Because we continue to receive questions about what happens when a dog is found, where animals can go, and why Delaware County does not have an open-intake shelter, we want to explain some of the realities of the current system.
Stray Dogs and the Legal Stray Hold:
Providence Animal Center, formerly the Delaware County SPCA, is privately operated and is not an open-intake facility.
Under Pennsylvania's Dog Law, a dog found running at large is subject to a legal minimum 48-hour stray hold, giving the owner an opportunity to come forward and reclaim the animal.
At one time, Justice Rescue and the Brandywine Valley SPCA (BVSPCA) served as legal stray-hold facilities available to Delaware County. Justice Rescue is no longer providing that service locally, and municipalities must contract with the BVSPCA in order for it to accept a dog found within that municipality.
There are other animal-control arrangements throughout the county. Haverford Township, for example, uses Ivens-Brownstein, while Marple Township, including Broomall and Newtown Square, currently works with Alan Strickler and is pursuing a contract with the BVSPCA.
These contracts matter. Situations such as the large-scale hoarding case in Broomall last weekend demonstrate exactly what can happen when police, firefighters, first responders, and animals are left without adequate resources or a place to go.
Which Delaware County Municipalities Currently Contract With the BVSPCA?
For perspective, the following Delaware County municipalities currently have contracts with the BVSPCA for animal-control services, but the list tends to change:
Aldan Borough
Brookhaven Borough
Chester Heights
Chester Township (not Chester City)
Collingdale Borough
Concord Township
Darby Borough
Darby Township
Folcroft Borough
Glenolden Borough
Lansdowne Borough
Lower Chichester Township
Marcus Hook Borough
Middletown Township
Nether Providence Township
Norwood Borough
Parkside Borough
Ridley Township
Sharon Hill Borough
Springfield Township
Tinicum Township
Trainer Borough
Upland Borough
Upper Chichester Township
Upper Providence Township
Yeadon Borough
This distinction is important because a municipality with a BVSPCA contract has access to an established process when a dog is found running at large.
If a dog is found within one of these municipalities—regardless of whether it happens during the day, at night, or on a weekend—the municipality can contact its designated dispatch service, which can dispatch the BVSPCA officer on duty.
The BVSPCA can then take custody of the animal, initiate the required stray-hold process, search for the owner, arrange veterinary care when necessary, and, if the animal is not reclaimed, work toward adoption or placement.
It provides police officers, residents, and first responders with a clear process instead of leaving them to call around to rescues, volunteers, or private citizens hoping someone has space.
The goal should be to expand this type of coverage throughout Delaware County so that every municipality has a reliable, legally compliant resource available when an animal is found.
The After-Hours Problem:
Upper Darby has had individuals providing animal-control services, but after-hours and weekend coverage has been an ongoing challenge. Other munipalities operate business hours only and if not mentioned in the list above, are not contracted with BVSPCA or anyone for that matter. Unfortunately, emergencies do not happen only during business hours. Many occur at night, on weekends, or when municipal resources are unavailable.
This can leave residents, police, and first responders without a reliable plan or backup.
Some municipalities have created temporary holding areas or makeshift kennels so that dogs found running at large at least have somewhere to be safely housed. Meanwhile, rescues, police, first responders, Good Samaritans, and community members continue to work together—often exhausting every available resource—to find somewhere safe for these animals.
We make it work because we refuse to leave an animal behind.
But making it work is not the same as having a sustainable system.
"Kill" vs. "No-Kill:”
Another issue that is frequently misunderstood is the difference between "kill" and "no-kill" shelters.
There is no completely "no-kill" shelter. Generally speaking, an open-admission or "kill" shelter may euthanize animals because of space and capacity constraints, while a "no-kill" shelter or rescue generally limits euthanasia to animals suffering from severe medical or behavioral conditions that cannot reasonably be resolved.
ACCT Philly is Philadelphia's open-intake shelter and is contracted by the City of Philadelphia to accept animals, including strays and owner surrenders. Because it is required to take animals regardless of capacity, it can experience severe overcrowding and may be forced to euthanize when resources and space are exhausted.
Unfortunately, some suburban dogs end up at ACCT after people report that they were found in Philadelphia because they have no other immediate option. Many loopholes are taken to try and get a dog to safety.
The BVSPCA's Chester County facility can respond when police from a municipality that has contracted with the organization request assistance. This allows the BVSPCA to take an animal from a finder or police department and provide the appropriate stray-hold process.
This is why it is so important for Delaware County municipalities to establish contracts with organizations capable of providing legal stray-hold and animal-control services.
Rescues Should Not Be the County's Animal-Control System:
For years, rescues have stepped in to fill the gaps. We take medical cases, abuse cases, emergencies, and animals that otherwise have nowhere to go.
But rescues cannot—and should not—be expected to function as municipal animal-control/humane law departments.
In many circumstances, rescues operating under kennel licenses are not legally permitted to simply take stray animals off the street and bypass the required stray-hold process.
Chester City is one example of an area that desperately needs reliable animal-control resources. For years, the city has not contracted with the BVSPCA for these services, leaving rescues and individual citizens to repeatedly step in.
And we do.
And others do.
We will always want to save the animal standing in front of us.
But there is an unintended consequence when rescues continually fill these gaps: municipalities can continue without developing the long-term infrastructure that is actually needed.
That is not sustainable—and it is not fair to the animals, the public, the police, or the rescues being asked to carry the responsibility.
Delaware County Needs a Long-Term Solution:
Delco Dawgs has been advocating for better animal-control infrastructure for years. We attended numerous Delaware County Council meetings regarding the need for a countywide shelter or animal-control facility. At one point, the county even offered us a building.
The problem was funding.
At the time, it was estimated that operating a facility capable of accepting every dog and cat brought to it would cost approximately $1.2 million annually. The county ultimately put out a bid, but no organization accepted it. That number has to be sustainable.
The cost and logistics are enormous. A facility would need to meet strict codes and standards and include separate areas for isolation, medical cases, and potentially aggressive animals. It would require trained staff, transportation, veterinary support, administration, and coverage around the clock, throughout the entire county.
This requires experienced professionals in animal rescue, animal control, shelter management, veterinary care, transportation, administration, and many other areas.
Until there is a sustainable plan and reliable annual funding, the most immediate solution is to get municipalities properly contracted with organizations capable of providing these services.
What Comes Next for Delco Dawgs:
We do not 100% know, but it is becoming clearer how we can continue to make a difference in different capacities. As previously announced, Delco Dawgs Rescue intends to surrender our kennel license and end our traditional intake operations.
That does not mean we are walking away from animal welfare.
After more than a decade of rescue, we have gained an enormous amount of knowledge, experience, relationships, and perspective. We believe that experience can now be used differently.
We are communicating with municipalities and will continue working toward better animal-control solutions. We also want to support newer rescues interested in becoming 501(c)(3) organizations by sharing what we have learned and helping them build responsible, sustainable organizations.
Our goal is not simply to close a chapter.
Our goal is to help create something better.
As everything is finalized over the coming months, we hope to transition Delco Dawgs Rescue into Delco Dawgs Foundation, allowing us to focus on advocacy, education, consultation, collaboration, and improving animal-welfare infrastructure throughout Delaware County. Maybe helping existing rescues survive.
We may be changing the way we serve our community, but we are not giving up on the animals.
After more than a decade of rescue, we believe our experience can be used for something bigger—helping build a system that does not depend on a handful of exhausted rescues and volunteers to step in and save the day every time there is a crisis. Helping new upcoming rescues.
The animals deserve better.
Our communities deserve better.
And it is time for all of us—rescues, municipalities, law enforcement, shelters, elected officials, and community members—to work together to build a system that is sustainable, accountable, and there when it is needed most.
Please feel free to ask questions and we will try to respond to the best of our knowledge and ability.
