Animal Adoption Center

General information

Animal Adoption Center was founded by Sid Kreitzberg in 1990. Sid is Chairman Emeritus of our board of trustees, and still actively involved with the shelter.

In 1985 Sid and a group of 43 volunteers were traveling daily into Camden, NJ to feed sick and starving dogs and cats. At the time Camden was overflowing with stray and abandoned animals, and Sid and his friends set up feeding stations throughout the city to meet the need. His group eventually formed the non-profit Friends of Camden Animal Shelter (FOCAS).

FOCAS learned that the SPCA in Lindenwold, NJ was planning to sell their shelter building on Berlin Rd. Camden County purchased the facility and turned it over to FOCAS for one dollar. FOCAS agreed to continue to rescue animals from Camden County communities, and they reincorporated as the Animal Adoption Center (AAC) in 1991.

The first board of trustees designated the shelter as a no-kill facility, and it remains so to this day. Their groundbreaking decision predated the public birth of the modern no-kill movement in San Francisco by three years, and was unheard of in the field of animal control at the time.

AAC expanded throughout the 1990’s, improving both the property and infrastructure. The facility can comfortably house 32 cats and 41 dogs, and has found homes for more than 16,000 animals since 1990.