by Gwen Pearson

“Our ARL field trip was real-world learning,” Mercuris said. “We were right in with the dogs, cats and turtles. They are all up for adoption. Many students said they wanted to take them all home.”
On Oct. 13, the Intro to Business class, headed by High School Business Teacher Eileen Mercuris, took an early-morning trip to the Animal Rescue League. The trip took up half of the school day; the bus left the school during first period, only to return a few minutes before fifth started. Mercuris had made sure to separate all 20 of her students into groups for a project that they would be starting as soon as they returned from the trip. The projects will involve each group starting up a business revolving around animals. This happened to be the main reason that Mercuris wanted to go to the ARL, hopefully to give her students a chance at having a more realistic business and giving them all a better view of what goes on behind the scenes in this kind of entrepreneurship.
The trip to the ARL opened the eyes of each student on the tour, getting shown the facilities before they officially opened for the day. There are over 1,100 animals at the ARL currently, with over 300 volunteers taking care of each of them. They take in classic house pets such as cats, dogs and the occasional turtle, but they also take in farm animals such as horses and chickens. However, if someone were to bring in a snake, there is a certain procedure to follow. Despite the snake also needing a home, snakes will be taken in by a completely different organization, as snakes generally eat mice. The tour guide mentioned that the number of animals they house declines drastically on Mondays and Tuesdays, due to all the weekend adoption.
Some groups from the class even started talking about their projects before the much awaited trip, forming ideas that changed once they saw how the people at the ARL had set things up.
“I felt like it really helped with the project that we are doing in class,” senior Ashley Noah said. “I enjoyed seeing all of the animals and experiencing all that the ARL had to offer. I feel like they are doing a very amazing thing there, and more people should get involved.”
A popular display was the cat play room, which gave a view of many cats and their bonded partners, or two cats who came in together and will not be separated under any circumstances. There also are many animals who have been at the shelter for a while and have yet to be adopted, so the care-takers make videos to post of them on the Internet to bring more attention to them.
All animals who are taken in are vaccinated for many different viruses, as well as spayed or neutered and microchipped. Please make sure to stop in at the ARL to adopt or to donate! Every bit helps an animal in need.