What we’re doing with your donations!

There are a lot of things that Little Miracles has been scrambling to catch up on, to update and fix for the Health Dept requests. Not all of the money we’re raising is JUST for compliance – there are some aspects of the rescue that badly needed catching up, like some utility bills that got behind over the summer, and other needs that are important for our day-to-day functioning.

Two of the major concerns brought up by the Health Department was the fact that our main kennels needed replacement or repair, and that floors throughout the rescue, including inside the bunny kennels, needed repainting with acrylic flooring to ensure that the concrete flooring is “impervious to moisture”.

We put out $331.56 in metal racks and shelving, in addition to coroplast to life and separate the dog crates that currently house about 20 of our resident rabbits – we estimate that we’re going to need at least one more $200 rack to sufficiently re-arrange the dog crates to meet their requests. The Health Department expressed concerns that stacking one small dog crate on top of a large crate is “insecure” or that “poo, food or hay can be kicked out of the sides of a dog crate, and land in another rabbit’s area.” – as such, we’re also working on acrylic “boarders” to mount inside each dog crate – preventing anything from accidentally being kicked out of the housing. We’ve estimated the acrylic left to purchase will cost about $300 to complete all the cages, total.

We purchased 7 cans of acrylic concrete garage floor paint (cost,$224) , and one bottle of etcher (cost – $20). We needed to etch areas of the floor that are high-traffic which needed re-touching before new floors could be painted. We removed all the rabbits and re-painted all the condo floors and shelves, although we’re in need of an additional volunteer day, and another $70 worth of paint (high-gloss, easy to wash, children’s bedroom paint (2 cans) – to be able to paint the sides of the condos that still need repair.

We had to purchase a pallet of wood stove pellets to help us increase the amount of litter box changes per week, although we still intend to fight the Health Department’s demands of daily sterilization. We are working with professionals to explain what is “normal” and “healthy” and looking into having a lawyer support that the NJ Dept of Health follow USDA rules for the care of rabbits, which we already meet and exceed, rather than trying to push us to follow rules obviously set forth and designed around the care of dogs in dog kennels. No, you wouldn’t leave dog poop on the floor in a cage/crate for 2-3 days, but it’s not necessary to change a rabbit’s litter pan more often than that, so long as you are sweeping and mopping the cage on a daily basis to keep their area clean and dry!

Another thing we’ve tackled is the issues with our isolation room – we had to remove all the items that were being stored in our current iso room – which will eventually be our medical room, when construction starts back up on the other side of the building. We needed to provide architectural drawings, both to the township for building permits, and as well as provide schematics of our ventilation system, the new construction, and the layout of our outdoor play areas.

In addition, we need to continue working on the outdoor play areas -as we get closer to fall, these exercise runs will be an important meeting place for new families to get to know their new families. We are considering the possibility of having to remove the sand boxes we put in, replacing these with all concrete, but we need to have our lawyer contend the unfair rules that they are trying to force on us- stating that dogs can play in grass / natural flooring yards at nearby shelters, but our rabbits can’t.

Speaking of lawyers – the fantastic civil attorney who had reviewed our case last summer just got back to us. Sadly, she’s no longer working in civil law and has recommended a few attorneys to us. We have no yet paid the $1500 – $2500 retainer any attorney will charge us to start the case against the Health Dept’s unfair rulings, and the people who are harassing us to cease and desist. As soon as we secure a new attorney, we will let you know. It pains us to ask for help to pay for the initial attorney’s fees – but it’s a necessary evil. Most of you have stated that you agree with our need to secure good representation and none of our donors have asked for their donations NOT to be used in part for securing the attorney to protect us.

Another expensive change was the isolation room’s floor. The health department told us that we needed to remove all the items inside – replace the medical refrigerator which was no longer working with a deep freezer and a small medication fridge – both of which we are looking for good deals to purchase one or someone who can donate one. The floor of the isolation room, we could either epoxy-resin paint, just like we have throughout the kennels, or we could lay down tile. We made the decision that the floor, although it needed to be leveled ($235.68 worth of lumber and supplies to level the floor, plus $238.74 at Lowes for the actual tile flooring and glue) – it was much better to level the floor and put down the acrylic tile so that the room is easier to sanitize. The room will house tools for sanitizing medical tools and equipment.

We’ve had several other stops at Home Depot amounting to $272.20 for supplies for the volunteer work day for construction, tools, supplies, large yard garbage bags, floor cleaned and sanitize. We’ll make those receipts public once they’ve all been scanned and stored into our accounting software – we thank you sincerely for giving us the ability to purchase all the supplies we haven’t had donated.

We also found an industrial dish washer (which we’ve gotten them to donate all but $500 of the asking price – down from $2500!). This industrial dish washer will significantly cut down on the time spent sanitizing food bowls, water bottles, litter-boxes, toys and medical items.

In addition to those important items – we sat down and made a medical book, listing and recording all of the medications that we have and use – we are meeting with our vet tomorrow (she charges $150 a month for in-house visits – which is NOTHING considering how much she does when she comes in, it’s far more inexpensive than taking individual bunnies to the vet one at a time!)

The medication log only cost about $20 to assemble, and medications that need to be ordered total about $600. We have many medications on hand which are getting close to their expiration date, and while the health department requires the log, and that we have access to veterinary care and prescription medications should we need them – our medical supervision staff working closely with our vet, has an important list of things that we should always have on hand. As you know, most medical needs don’t happen on Monday at noon- it’s always night time, holidays and weekends when you need them the most!

Other big expenses so far include:

While not an issue brought up by the Health Department, we knew we were in trouble with our building (and late) utility payments. Summer time, being as slow as it is, was taking a serious toll. Our rent was late for the first time, and three utility bills – the gas, electric and internet/phone were all seriously behind. $1216.12 was paid to Atlantic City Electric, to keep our power on. There’s $560 left to pay on Sept 5th. We paid off a $256.18 bill with Comcast. We paid off over $880 from an old gas bill. We caught up with our rent which was late – $1350 a month, so July and August are paid, and September’s is due again next week.

Before we launched the most recent fundraising campaign, LMRR invested in $200 worth of advertising through facbook – it increased our reach from our 3000+ followers, to almost 400,000 people. This advertising was critically necessary, bringing our mission forward, and helping us to lock-down supporters and professionals who can help us tackle the differences of opinion with the health department investigators, as well as network with other shelter and rescue groups that have been through similar situations.

We paid off a $200 veterinary bill at Evesham Veterinary, but we still owe nearly $2500 to Care Credit for spay/neuter surgeries from the rescue, and a $735 bill from our old vet, which we would like to pay before it goes to collections or litigation – an unnecessary cost for the rescue. It’s not our intention to use the money for the Save Our Shelter to pay vet bills – but if we find that we have excess money after the construction and physical changes are complete, we will apply some funds to the vet bills.

One of the most important things in saving our shelter, is building a plan for sustainability – investing in ways to keep money coming into the shelter, to keep the bills paid. We invested $548.19 in about $6,000 worth of product that will be sold through the rescue and keep money coming in for the shelter.

Several Home Depot purchases including repairs to the a/c / heater to fix a leak, and new filters – we bought 7 cans of the acrylic paint ($39 ea.) and a bottle of etcher ($20) for cleaning and prepping the concrete floors. We purchased $235 in lumber to level out the floor in the current isolation room, which will be the medical/surgical suite in the future. We spent $238.74 on the tile flooring at Lowes – we got an excellent deal on much more expensive flooring that was on close-out, plus the adhesive and prep. We spent an additional $272 at Home Depot on supplies and equipment for some of the smaller projects, including new zip-ties, grout, adhesives, lighting and gardening supplies for cutting back the yard growth as was required by the Health Dept. We removed all the growth and underbrush and volunteers helped us better prepare for the outdoor exercise areas, which still need some work before they can be used (and an additional panel and fencing, long bolts, etc).

We spent $207 at Office Depot, on the copies the Health Dept required for the architectural plans and layout and designs for the outdoor exercise runs and schematics for the ventilation system in the isolation room. We also purchased necessary organizational supplies to complete the new filing systems – new clip boards to display medical treatment plans for the animals in isolation and more – all items documented by the Health Department as changes they wanted to see. (Before, we were updating the animal’s records, but not keeping current medical orders posted in a manner they liked)

We spent $390 on a new laser printer and cartridges – this will save us over $2000 in copy costs every year! We got a $1500 printer on close-out clearance, and it was a deal we couldn’t pass up on. This allowed us to print and build new adoption books and improve our files and organizational sytem!

We also had to apply for permitting for the special animals that we keep such as dwarf hamsters and ferrets and more. That permit was $100.

We spent $260 on supplies at Petsmart for animals with special diet concerns: The ferrets, guinea pigs, sugar glider – special dietary needs for rabbits, like timothy pellet diet, different types of hay, as well as medical supplies such as vet wrap, probiotics and rabbit-safe butt-bath supplies. Petsmart is a regular stop for specialty items that feed supply stores don’t carry.

At the Walmart store, we stocked up on replacement mop head and mops, replacing equipment the health department felt was no longer useful – we also replaced some plastic storage bins and picked up cleaning supplies to keep on hand, in addition to stocking up on paper towels, tp, etc. All things needed for keeping the shelter doors open! We also replaced tons of water bottles and litter-boxes, a request made by the Health Dept that we upgrade some of our older or damaged equipment.

We spent $64 at Murphy’s Market on veggies – they have GREAT deals on citrus fruits for our guinea pigs, and fresh foods needed for our sugar glider.

We spent $561 stocking up on feed and litter, as well as over a dozen medications recommended by our vet to always have on hand -things like oxybendazole (for head tilt), tetrymicin and penicillan injectable (antibiotics) as well as ivermectin (for furmites/ear mites). We bought an entire pallet of litter to increase the frequency of litter-box changes, although we’re still intending to use our attorney to fight the NJ Dept of Health to enforce USDA standards for rabbit care, which we already meet/exceed rather than pushing unfair changes based on laws made for dog kennels on us. We don’t think it’s fair that a dog poops once, maybe twice a day, so their kennels are expected to be kept poo-free, where in reality, no person cleans their rabbit’s litter pans every single day, it’s unnecessary, overly expensive, and unrealistic.

In order to meet the Health Department’s commentary to remove the rabbits from their condos during the cleaning process, but not let them run and play in exercise pens – we’ve constructed Neat Ideas Cube holding boxes – we bought $225 worth of choroplast, and wiped out three K-Mart stores from their stock of NIC’s – spending $137.73, $141 and $111.93 – we also bought plastic storage containers to hold the hay, another point of contention that we want our lawyer to argue with the Health Department. (It’s unsafe to store hay in air-tight containers). We changed our signage all over the rescue to better reflect WHY not to use the alfalfa (Our sign now reads: Volunteers: DO NOT USE – this hay is for rabbits with special diets, please ask a supervisor) – this was a problem with the health dept before who felt that “DO NOT USE” meant that the hay in bins was actually waste or garbage. 😦

We spent $40 at Dambly’s Garden Center on items needed for the shelter’s outdoor areas, and to fix a leaking hose -a problem the Health Dept. had noted.