Pets find homes with New Beginnings Animal Rescue

Pets find homes with New Beginnings Animal Rescue

For the last five years, a local animal shelter has provided pets a temporary home.

New Beginnings Animal Rescue, an animal rescue shelter located at 2515 Newbold Avenue, was started in 2011 by Pedro Rosario, who started his profit organization, pet boarding facility NYC Top Dog, Inc. the year before.

Before starting New Beginnings, Rosario’s goal and vision was to have a no-kill pet shelter in the Bronx, after working for 16 years as manager of Animal Care & Control, a facility that usually euthanizes unwanted pets if they aren’t adopted in three days.

However, keeping the organization afloat has been a struggle for Rosario and New Beginnings.

Saddled with a $4,200 rent and a Con Edison bill of $2,400, among other monthly expenses, the non-profit organization, which does not receive any city or state funding, has depended solely on donations and fundraising from events to pay the expenses to keep organization alive.

“It’s still hard – we just take it one day at a time,” said Rosario, referring to constantly trying to keep the animal shelter alive.

“However, in the past year, we’ve seen more adoptions than ever before and fortunes have changed dramatically for these pets. However, it is important not to forget that there is always an animal out there who is suffering,” he added.

“There is such a need in this borough for an animal shelter that takes care of these pets and gives them the ‘home before a home’ that they need before they get adopted,” said Marlena Giga, who has volunteered at New Beginnings for four years and recently took a bull terrier all the way up to New Hampshire for adoption.

In the past, New Beginnings has worked with girl and boy scouts, children with learning disabilities, as well as students from Christopher Columbus Campus, Adlai E. Stevenson Campus and Bronx Compass High School, as well as P.S. 27 – teaching them to responsibly care for pets.

Senator Jeff Klein, has assisted the non-profit organization with fundraisers and other events in the past.

New Beginnings, which holds up to 120 pets at one time, will hold its Special Adoption Event on Saturday, March 5 from noon to 4 p.m. at the shelter

It will feature pets who have been ignored, misunderstood and overlooked, such as older dogs, dogs in wheelchairs, as well as black and fat cats, all of whom don’t have the best luck when it comes to being adopted.

Adoption fees are about $100 for cats and between $300 to 350 for dogs. There is no fee to attend the event.

“This event is for the underdogs and the undercats,” a volunteer said.

For more information on the upcoming event or on New Beginnings Animal Rescue, visit www.facebook.com/NBARthebronx or www.newbeginningsanimalrescue.net.

The animal shelter’s pets are also available online at www.petfinder.com after typing ‘10462’ in the zip code box.

Reach Reporter Steven Goodstein at (718) 260-4599. E-mail him at sgoodstein@cnglocal.com.