Awareness Leads to Adoption : Shopping Mall Showcases Pets Put on ‘Death Row’

Each weekend the cages open for “Death Row” pets at a suburban Humane Society shelter and some unwanted, unloved dogs and cats get a temporary reprieve.

They spend the day in a shady corner of a shopping mall, barking, meowing and wagging their tails near a sign that reads: “Help! Our time is up. Please take us home.”

The animals are wards of Eileen Chamberlain, a self-employed saleswoman and Humane Society volunteer whose activist approach to pet adoption has saved at least 73 dogs and cats from certain death.

“I would like to realize a time,” she said, “when our shelter no longer has any creature that is unwanted.”

Chamberlain, 38, has a long way to go before she reaches her goal of ending pet euthanasia in Montgomery County, Pa., by finding homes for abandoned animals. In 1985, the county Humane Society shelter destroyed 7,000 unwanted and unclaimed animals.

Sees Much Work Ahead

“It’s going to take a lot of work,” she said. “It’s going to take time.”

Chamberlain, who has been a volunteer at the Montgomery County animal shelter for about 10 years, said she first became an animal activist after reading a newspaper advertisement about the plight of laboratory animals.

“This sort of hit a nerve,” she said. “(The animals’) capacity for both physical and emotional feeling was so deep that I thought this was something I wanted to pursue.”

Taking pets to a shopping mall, where they are more readily seen by people in the community, has raised awareness of the problem faced by the shelter run by the county’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Also Educates Public

“Most (people) are quite sympathetic,” Chamberlain said. “Just by my own rough guesstimate, we get about one adoption out of every 100 people that see us.”

Chamberlain, who has adopted two abandoned cats for herself, said she also uses the visits to the mall to educate the public about the importance of neutering and the responsibilities of owning a pet.

Most pets are left at the Humane Society shelter because their owners move or go on vacation. Some even give their animals away to punish a spouse or child, said Chamberlain.

“If they can imagine themselves doing anything like that, they should not adopt a pet to begin with,” she said.

Has Won Support

Chamberlain’s program has won the interest and the support of the Humane Society and many of the people who see her at work in the shopping malls.

“It seems to be very successful at this point,” said John Hendler, the director of the shelter where Chamberlain picks up the pets for her weekend jaunts.

He said the shelter was considering expanding the program to include more shopping centers and more animals and buying a van to transport the pets.

Not everyone is receptive to the program. Some people have ridiculed her for taking the plight of condemned animals seriously. Despite that, she said the program is worth it.