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By: Tony Farina

Ross Cellino is widely known as a personal injury lawyer, but he recently teamed up with former sports broadcaster Ed Kilgore and writer Gary Hoy to help the Niagara County SPCA find homes for animals looking to leave their cages for a better life.

“My family has always had dogs and I’m just happy to be a part of this effort to find homes for these animals,” said Cellino during a visit last week to the shelter on Lockport Rd. in the Town of Wheatfield.

With help from Kilgore and Hoy, Cellino teamed up with Tim Brennan of the SPCA to form the Sponsor a Cage program and became one of the sponsors, paying for the care and food of an animal housed at the shelter and waiting for adoption.

The goal is simple: find sponsors from the community whether businesses or individuals, to pay for an animal’s care at the shelter, including medicine, with all money from sponsors going directly to the SPCA to provide for the needs of animals currently housed there and looking for homes.

There are rows of caged animals desperately looking for homes at the shelter, and the effort to empty cages and find them loving families is a wonderfual goal and Cellino is sponsoring Angel, a loving  nine-year-old dog with eyes just crying for help.

The SPCA says sponsors of the animals in the new program will receive photos of pets with their new owner after adoption, and Kilgore says the new partnership is a wonderful opportunity to give these animals a chance at life.  The sponsorship program provides cash every month for the SPCA with all of the money used to provide for the needs of animals at the shelter.

For businesses and others looking to sponsor a cage and help an animal find a loving home, you can call or text Kimberly at 716-799-7115 or visit www.Cellinospca.org for more information.

It is truly a wonderful program that tugs at your heart during a visit to the shelter with so many animals just looking for a family to take them out of their cages and give them a home.  Cellino deserves a tip of the hat for leading this effort and providing the resources to get it started.  We are hoping it is a great success story and we will revisit in the spring to provide an update.