Southampton, New York, is a city of about 57,000 people located in east Long Island. In 2009, the city stopped funding its animal control department. The citizens rallied to help the animals and formed the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation, also known as the Southampton Animal Shelter (SAS), a 501(c)(3) organization that took over management of the shelter. SAS has provided animal control and sheltering for the city since January 1, 2010. The shelter takes in strays and accepts owner surrenders from its jurisdiction.
In a 2011 newsletter that is no longer available online, SAS listed the communities it serves as “Eastport, Speonk, Westhampton, Westhampton Beach, Quiogue, Quogue, East Quogue, Hampton Bays, Southampton, Southampton Village, Watermill, Bridgehampton, Sagaponack, Wainscott, North Sea, Noyack, Sag Harbor, Sag Harbor Village, Northampton, North Haven, Riverside and Flanders.” That is 21 communities with a total of over 40,000 people.
The shelter has a Training and Behavior Department that has developed a group socialization program for its dogs with the help of noted behavioralist Aimee Sadler. The shelter also offers group and private lessons for dogs, and puppy training classes. Southampton is a member of the Center for Shelter Dogs program run by the Animal Rescue League of Boston, and uses the center’s Match-Up II system for behavior evaluation for its dogs. They offer low cost spay-neuter. The shelter supports TNR for community cats.
The shelter reports a 94% live release rate on its website.
The Southampton cities are counted in the Running Totals as 90%+ communities.
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