That was delightfully apparent to Lancaster News employees Friday morning as they maneuvered past 16 birds standing guard at the newspaper’s front entrance. As the remnants of Hurricane Hermine started drenching the poor creatures at mid-morning, the flamingos remained steadfast at their posts.
Flocking your friends’ yards or workplaces with the pink plastic birds will add some money to the SPCA fund.
“A phone call to us and then ‘Surprise!’” said Diana Knight, Lancaster SPCA president. “We’ve flocked yards in the middle of the night and ridden through Forest Hills on a golf cart putting the flamingos out.”
Knight said SCPA volunteers have fun doing this, all for the benefit of puppies and kittens.
Last year’s event raised $2,500. The flocking began with Faulkner’s Animal Hospital and ended with Founders Federal Credit Union, two of the SPCA’s best allies.
Animal lovers pay to have their friend’s or neighbor’s yards filled or “flocked” with pink plastic flamingos. Prices are determined by the size of the flock. A small flocking of 12 costs $25; a medium flock of 25 costs $50 and a large flocking is $100. SPCA members will leave the bright pink flock in place for about 24 hours.
Payment methods include Paypal or checks.
Part of the creative fundraiser allows animal lovers who might not want a flock of plastic pink birds covering their lawn to buy anti-flocking insurance for $10.
Knight said some people pay the extra $10 when they flock their neighbor’s yard to prevent a revenge flocking.
“It’s all in good fun,” Knight said.
“One lady paid to have five neighbors’ yards flocked while they were on vacation, so they all came home to a surprise,” she said.
Some people get flocked more than once during the month.
The SPCA has ordered 50 more flamingos for this year, giving them 140 fund-raising flamingos, so several yards can be flocked at the same time.
The SPCA saved the grand finale flocking for Founders Federal Credit Union last year in honor of its generous support.
Knight said that by the end of the month, some flamingos were injured and some were missing in action. Dogs had chewed on some of them and marked a few as only dogs can.
“Some were chomped down in the middle and some had beaks missing,” she said. “We put every surviving flamingo we had at Founders on the last day of September.”
To flock a friend or for more information, call the Lancaster SPCA at (803) 287-7636 or email lancspca@comporium.net. The SPCA will coordinate the flocking around your friend or neighbor’s schedule in an effort to maximize the surprise.
The money is used to care for animals while they await adoption and for spaying and neutering. The goal is to be able to offer spaying/neutering for adult dogs whose puppies have been surrendered to the SPCA.
“We are extending that offer to the shelter, so if an owner drops a litter of puppies off there, they can contact us and we will pay to have their dog spayed,” Knight said.
The local SPCA does not have funding for a complete spay/neuter program, but it does what it can.
“We believe spaying/neutering is the way to go,” Knight said. “We have way too many stray animals in our community, and we will not solve that problem until we get the dogs spayed and neutered.”
The SPCA needs volunteers to foster cats and dogs who are awaiting adoption.
9/4/16
Follow reporter Mandy Catoe on Twitter @mandy_catoe or contact her at (803) 283-1152 or mcatoe
@thelancasternews.com
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