All right,

so Mr.

Mayor members of the council.

The first briefing will be provided by the F the VB SBCA.

They're gonna come and briefly the council about their overview of their offerings and they give council update about their other programs as well.

So we'll be joined by their

CEO.

Okay.

Thank you for coming, a very important topic.

So

good afternoon.

Thank you for the opportunity to share our story at the Virginia Beach SPCA and how we serve our local Virginia Beach residents and our surrounding communities here in Hampton Roads.

Thank you as well for your partnership by supporting us in your annual budget.

We appreciate that.

At

Virginia Beach SPCA, we build and sustain relationships between people and animals through sheltering, affordable care, education, and community partnership.

As

a private 501c3 nonprofit organization, we've been serving our community since 1966, and our mission is stayed consistent, helping to create a more humane and responsible community by eliminating animal suffering while increasing human compassion.

We're pleased to be joined this afternoon by the Virginia Beach Animal Care and Adoption Center, which we'll be presenting to the council after us.

Both organizations have a pivotal and distinct role serving our community.

Although we have different responsibilities, one focused on animal control, public safety enforcement, municipal sheltering, the other on private nonprofit sheltering, affordable veterinary veterinary care, and humane education.

At VBSPCA, there are three core pillars that define the services we provide.

Those are shelter and adoption, affordable veterinary care, and humane education.

Excuse me, pet retention, support vulnerable residents through affordable veterinary care and our food pet food pantry as well.

And we've provided humane education to slightly over 4,600 students at our schools.

As we previously shared, we often say that the first day of the rest of the animal's life begins the very day that they arrive at the VBSPCA.

Pictured here is a picture of Doris Center puppies.

Dor

Center puppies are a perfect example of that narrative.

People come to us when they need help finding a new home for a family member when they just no longer can afford to take care of them, or when they're ready to grow their family through adoption.

Each of Doris's puppies you see in this picture here, each of her puppies found their forever homes pretty quickly.

As you can imagine, puppies, puppies find home quickly, just as young uh young babies and young children do.

But the adult, the adult dogs take a bit longer.

Doris stayed with us for over a year.

Waiting and hoping for that forever home to arrive.

I'm happy to say that just recently.

Doris found her forever home with a gentleman who chose to make her a part of his family.

And we're not exactly sure who truly rescued whom, but we do know this.

Every time she does come to visit, she only comes to visit to say hello.

She doesn't come to stay.

Dor Center puppies are just one of the many examples of the families that were that were formed through the work we do at the VBS PCA.

We're going to dive a little bit deeper into the work that we actually do.

And I'm going to ask that Danil Nance will take a few minutes to walk through the core services and how those services affect our animals and our community here in Virginia Beach.

Danielle.

Good afternoon.

It's good to be with you all.

Thank you for having us again.

So

the Virginia Beach SPCA welcomes and provides care for dogs, cats, and small animal companions arriving through owner surrenders, but also from transfers from other animal welfare partners.

Our intake is a scheduled by appointment model and based on available capacity, allowing our team to assess each animal's needs and provide appropriate housing, daily care, veterinary treatment, enrichment, and adoption support.

Ongoing demand requires careful management of staffing and space, as you can imagine to maintain quality care.

Continued coordination with the city's shelter offers opportunities to align transfers, respond to community needs, and thoughtfully use existing facilities.

These efforts strengthen our local animal welfare network while keeping services within each organization's capacity.

As a private nonprofit, the Virginia Beach SPCA's shelter services complement the city as we've talked about today.

Um, city's municipal sheltering.

Our role is distinct, but as Han said, our partnership helps expand the resources available to animals and provides and the people who care for them.

Apologies there.

Our appointment-based intake process helps us make our commitment responsibly.

It gives our team time to understand the circumstances, assess an animal's needs, and determine whether we have the right staff and space available.

For residents, making the difficult decision to surrender a pet is an opportunity for us to also have a compassionate conversation and explore whether resources could keep the animal with their beloved family.