Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Animal shelter has new director

Angelina Dye started out in college with a biology major

Evelyn Cronce El Defensor Chieftain reporter

Angelina Dye has been on the job for about two weeks now as the director of the Animal Protection Association of Socorro, which is Socorro's animal shelter.

Originally from St. Louis, Mo., Dye came to Socorro in September — on Labor Day, to be precise. Her mother had moved to Socorro when she was hired by Aerojet and was so impressed by the Socorro economy that she encouraged her daughter to follow her.

Dye graduated from Rider State College in New Jersey with a bachelor's degree in psychology. Dye said she started out as a biology major, but did not have the heart to dissect the animals required to receive that degree.

Dye said she is considering continuing her education but right now, she just doesn't have the energy. She worked her way through college.

"I didn't have any scholarships," she said. "I went to school full time and had sometimes as many as five part-time jobs at once."

One of those jobs was living and working with a cat breeder in New Jersey. As part of her job, she also showed different breeders' cats and dogs at shows in Madison Square Gardens.

"She (the breeder) had about 100 cats, only about 20 of which were show cats. She was into rescuing animals, " Dye said.

Along with the cats, Dye said the breeder had four dogs, an iguana with a 3-foot long body not counting the tail, two chinchillas, a small lizard in an aquarium and two cockatiels.

While she was working with the cat breeder, Dye also worked with a horse breeder and showed some of their horses.

Here in Socorro, Dye has two cats that she has raised since they were kittens. Claude is now 13 years old and Whisper is 11 years old.

Dye said she and animal control officer Frank Marquez are working with the city to set new hours for the animal shelter. For now, she is at the shelter usually from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. but closed for lunch noon to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call the shelter at 575-838-3103 for more information.

ecronce@dchieftain.com

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