White Oak Safe Haven - A NO-KILL Shelter

Welcome to the White Oak Animal Safe Haven's Blog!  One of the greater Pittsburgh area "No-Kill" shelters! 

The vision for the White Oak Animal Safe Haven, a no-kill shelter, began in March 2000.  Ina Jean Marton, who is a lifelong resident of White Oak Borough became councilwoman in 1994 and was then elected mayor in 2004.  By her efforts at the vetoing of the monthly salary of the former Animal Control Officer, she found a better way to save homeless and stray animals, thus the birth of WOASH. 


After a few years of planning and volunteering, the "Grand Opening" was held on September 21, 2003.  On this day, the doors were open for unwanted, stray and hard to place dogs and cats. 


The White Oak Animal Safe Haven is totally funded by donation; no tax-payer's money was used in building the shelter nor for any supplies. We have over 75 volunteers, some of which put in over 60 hours per week doing laundry, dishes, cleaning kennels, giving medications and assisting with our Veterinarian in neutering and spaying. 


The most important part of our job here at WOASH is loving the animals that we have here.  There is nothing more heart breaking than looking into a precious animal's eyes when they are brought here to the shelter.  We try everything in our power to nurse them back to health and to feel normal and loved.  Here at the shelter, we are all about the animals.  Every animal takes a little piece of our heart when they go to a new home and when an animal leaves to go with their new parents it is an extraodinary feeling for the volunteers, because we all stop to say good-bye. 


Another way to keep our shelter running is through adoptions and fundraising events, which we will be posting on our blog soon, so make sure you keep an eye out for these soon. 

Our goal is to save and adopt as many animals as we can and make them feel loved and cherished while they are in our care.  We have adopted well over 7,000 snimals since 2003 to wonderful families of which are all carefully screened. 


Please try to come in and see some of our beloved pets!