Pet Adoption League plans move, end of feud with founder

The Pet Adoption League in South Huntingdon is planning a move, ending a years-long feud between the animal shelter and its founder.

The league has a 99-year lease that allows it to rent its current location for $1 a year from Barbara Flanigan, who founded the shelter about 30 years ago. Her house is next to the shelter, and the two buildings share a driveway on Spring Street in Yukon.

The league board fired Flanigan in 2013, and the relationship between the shelter and its founder has been fraught ever since, prompting numerous dueling lawsuits.

Westmoreland County Judge Richard McCormick ordered Flanigan not to enter kennel property after accusations that she trespassed there and harassed its staff and volunteers. Flanigan was sentenced to 10 days in jail in 2017 after repeated violations of that order.

Pet Adoption League Director Sarah Jo Smith said staying at the site wasn’t worth the “ongoing battle” and the court costs.

“We finally have purchased 10 acres of our own, and we’re going to leave the property, but that also entails building new buildings,” she said.

The league will set up a temporary office in a trailer on a 3-acre property it owns on Spring Street as it raises money to build a new permanent location on Bells Mills Road in Wyano.

“We need serious fundraisers,” Smith said. “We need about $250,000 to build the kennel.”

Flanigan said she’ll be glad to see the league gone.

“We’ve come to an agreement and they are finally exiting my property, and I think both sides are glad it’s over,” she said. “It’s been a long, very ugly, very bitter conflict.”

She’s not sure what she’ll do with the land and buildings after the league leaves — she’s considering renting to a vet clinic or another rescue group, but may put it to another use entirely, she said.

The league adopts out more than 500 animals a year, but will pause adoption activities for about a year as it works to finance and build a new shelter, Smith said.

“Mostly our focus is going to be on raising money to get our kennel up,” she said.

In December 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of State prohibited the Pet Adoption League from fundraising because the league did not file the legal paperwork required of charities. The issue was resolved and the league can solicit donations again, Smith said.

The league will move out of the Spring Street shelter by July 15 and needs to find homes for several cats and dogs before that date.

For Flanigan, July 15 will mark the final chapter of her relationship with the group.

“This is how it ends,” she said. “I really don’t wish them ill at this stage of the game. I just wish them off my property.”