01About us
We started because the shelter said it was out of room.
In 2007, a handful of foster families in Jersey City kept getting the same call from the county shelter: healthy animals, no space, a deadline. They started taking them home. That improvisation became A Call 4 Paws — a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that now runs a four-acre sanctuary in Jonestown, Pennsylvania.
Eighteen years on, the work has not fundamentally changed. Someone calls about an animal who has run out of options, and we decide whether we can be the option.
Our mission
To rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome animals in crisis across New Jersey and Pennsylvania; to give lifetime sanctuary to those who cannot safely be placed; and to reduce the number of animals who need us at all through education and access to veterinary care.
02What we hold to
Four commitments that decide the hard calls
Values are only worth stating if they cost something. Each of these has made us turn down an animal, an adopter, or a donation.
Capacity before compassion
The hardest discipline in rescue is the honest no. An organization that takes one animal past its limit gives worse care to every animal it already has. We track our capacity in beds, veterinary hours, and staff time, and we decline when any of the three is spent — then we help the caller find another option.
The whole life, not the placement
An adoption is a beginning we stay responsible for. Every animal we place can come back to us at any point, for any reason, at no cost and with no time limit. That policy is written into the adoption contract, and we have honoured it for animals returned after nine years.
Honest matching over fast matching
We will tell you that the dog you fell in love with online cannot live with your cat, resource guards around children, or needs four hundred dollars of medication a year. Placements fail when the truth arrives after the adoption instead of before it.
Prevention costs less than rescue
A subsidized spay costs us a fraction of what it costs to rescue, treat, house, and place the litter that surgery prevents. Our community programs are not outreach. They are the cheapest animal welfare work we do.
03How we got here
Eighteen years, one acquisition that changed everything
For our first decade we were a foster network — effective, but capped by how many spare rooms our volunteers had. Buying land ended that ceiling and created a second kind of outcome.
- 2007
A Call 4 Paws is incorporated
Founded in Jersey City by a handful of foster families who kept saying yes when the county shelter had no room. IRS 501(c)(3) determination follows the same year.
- 2011
The first transport partnerships
Formal intake agreements with municipal shelters across Hudson County give us advance notice on at-risk animals instead of last-minute calls.
- 2014
Spay and neuter vouchers begin
We start subsidizing surgeries for low-income households rather than only treating the results. It remains the cheapest thing we do per animal not born into crisis.
- 2017
Four acres in Jonestown
The sanctuary property is purchased in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. For the first time, animals no longer have to be placed to be safe.
- 2019
The medical suite opens
On-site exam and treatment space ends the routine of driving every case an hour each way. Surgery recovery moves in-house.
- 2022
A dedicated quarantine building
Intake gets its own airflow, its own entrance, and its own staff rotation. Disease transmission between new arrivals and residents drops to near zero.
- 2025
Humane education reaches 100 classrooms
Our volunteers have now taught bite prevention and animal welfare to students across both states we serve.
04The sanctuary · Jonestown, PA
What four acres actually buys
Land is the difference between a rescue that can only move animals along and one that can also stop. The Jonestown property gives us separation — quarantine away from residents, cats away from kennels, fearful dogs away from everyone — and it gives us somewhere for the animals who are never going to be placed.
It also has to be run to a schedule that does not vary, because animals in recovery measure safety in predictability.
A day on the property, every day
- 06:00
First rounds
Medications, breakfast, and a hands-on health check on every animal on the property before anything else happens.
- 08:30
Cleaning and laundry
Kennels, cottage rooms, and the quarantine building — cleaned in that order, never the reverse, so nothing travels back toward intake.
- 10:00
Turnout, group A
Paddock time in small, carefully chosen groups. Dogs still decompressing go out alone, on long lines, into the meadow.
- 12:00
Behavior sessions
One-to-one work against each animal's written plan. Progress and setbacks both get logged the same day.
- 14:00
Veterinary block
Intake exams, surgery recovery checks, and transport runs to the specialists we do not have on site.
- 16:00
Turnout, group B
The second rotation, plus enrichment: scent work, puzzle feeders, and new objects in the paddocks so the environment is never static.
- 18:00
Evening feed
Dinner, evening medications, and the second full health check of the day.
- 20:00
Night check
Lights down, final walkthrough, and a staff member on the property overnight. No animal is ever alone on the land.
The sanctuary is a working facility rather than a visitor attraction, so access is by appointment — for adopters meeting an animal, for volunteers on shift, and for scheduled tours. Arrange a visit.
05Transparency & governance
The paperwork, in public
Nonprofit status is a set of obligations, not a badge. Here is who we are on paper, how we are governed, and what we will send you if you ask.
- Legal name
- A Call 4 Paws
- Tax status
- 501(c)(3) public charity
- EIN
- 26-0245763
- Headquarters
- Jersey City, New Jersey
- Sanctuary
- Jonestown, Pennsylvania — 4 acres
- Incorporated
- 2007
- States served
- New Jersey, Pennsylvania
Contributions to A Call 4 Paws are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Our IRS determination letter, current Form 990, and annual report are available to any donor, adopter, or journalist who requests them through the contact form.
Allocation of every dollar
- Direct animal care & veterinary
- 78%
- Sanctuary operations & land
- 13%
- Community education
- 5%
- Administration & fundraising
- 4%
No paid fundraisers. We do not contract external fundraising firms and pay no commission on donations received.
An unpaid board. Directors serve without compensation and cover their own expenses. A written conflict-of-interest policy is signed annually.
Restricted gifts stay restricted. Money given for a named animal or a specific medical case is tracked separately and spent only on that purpose.
Records on request. Governing documents, financials, and adoption policies go to anyone who asks — no form, no conditions.
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