Potter County Animal Assistance Project (PCAAP) is an incorporated nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status dedicated to advancing the cause of animal welfare and the prevention of animal cruelty in Potter County. The program is currently in need of volunteers willing to raise funds, grant researchers/writers, sponsors, trappers, and administrative workers. The PCAAP board of directors has announced a public meeting to be held on Wednesday, May 31 at 6pm at the Coudersport Area Recreational Park (C.A.R.P.) main pavilion located on CARP Park Road in Coudersport. If you are interested in lending your time and talents to help animals in Potter County, please come to the meeting. If you are unable to make the meeting but would be interested in helping out, please contact Lori Hansen by phone at 814-507-1388, email at lhansen@zitomedia.net, or message Potter County Animal Assistance Project on Facebook.

The organization began with a dedicated group of volunteers in 2012 and is governed by an elected board. Seed money for PCAAP was provided by the Helen Fath Greene Memorial Fund. Helen Fath Greene was a former resident of Potter County who left a bequest to the PSPCA for the benefit of domestic animals in Potter County. Over the nine year period from 2012 through 2021, PCAAP has funded the spaying/neutering of 7,650 cats and dogs. Through our foster program, we have found homes for 786 cats and kittens. Each year, PCAAP has been able to apply for funds through this grant. Last year, 2022, the grant from which PCAAP received the bulk of their funding was awarded elsewhere. In light of this reduction in funding, PCAAP has found it necessary to temporarily discontinue some of the programs that were previously offered in order to focus on the Trap/Neuter/Release (TNR) and Abandoned/Homeless Programs. TNR is a proven means of controlling free roaming cat populations. Every community in Potter County has free roaming cats and PCAAP volunteers work with residents in these communities to control these populations. Free roaming cats (cats without a known home) are humanely trapped and provided veterinary care including spaying/neutering, a rabies vaccine and a general vet check. They also have their left ear “tipped” to show that they have been through a TNR program and can no longer reproduce. They are then returned to the location where they were trapped. If that location is a free roaming cat colony, a PCAAP colony caretaker, who is most often a local resident, feeds and cares for the cats and monitors the health of the outdoor colony. The PCAAP Homeless/Abandoned program has helped many Potter County residents with the spaying/neutering of free roaming cats that they have adopted into their homes.

PCAAP is in the hopes of bringing back all their programs, including the low income program that assisted low income applicants, senior citizens and veterans with the spaying/neutering of their pets, and the emergency medical program that assisted local residents with unexpected emergency veterinary bills, providing that the funding can be raised to do so.