Penn Hills artist helps increase visibility of Tarentum-based animal rescue, Paws Across Pittsburgh
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For three years, nonprofit Paws Across Pittsburgh has been saving thousands of animals from high-kill shelters and other tragic situations, all with little fanfare in a nondescript Tarentum building.
Enter Penn Hills artist Sean Coffey, who is helping to jazz up the facility’s exterior and draw some much-needed attention from potential donors and fosters.
His whimsical, 3D murals are coming to life on the facility, engaging passersby and grabbing people’s attention.
“You couldn’t really tell what they did here,” said Coffey, who most recently painted murals for Steel City Arts Foundation in Pittsburgh’s Stanton Heights neighborhood and Doce Taqueria in the North Hills.
“Now, people are noticing and pointing and asking questions.”
Founded in Springdale in 2016, Paws Across Pittsburgh is a foster-based animal rescue that works to rescue, rehab and find permanent homes for abused or unwanted dogs and cats. It is run 100% by volunteers.
Paws is not a shelter, and there are no animals kept there. Instead, it serves as the headquarters where food, blankets and medication is stored.
But, nearly every Saturday, a yellow bus pulls into the lot on East Sixth Avenue with 10 to 35 dogs and cats on board. They are pulled from overcrowded shelters and abusive homes, or rescued from abandonment, and taken immediately by their fosters.
“The ramp in the back of the bus comes down and out they come, one by one, with their sad stories,” said house manager Jan Needham of Green Tree.
“It gives you chills because you know they are getting a second chance.”
Treasurer Jackie Abel-Stavropoulos of Carnegie said most people probably saw the building as another home on a residential street.
“They just walked by without realizing what happens here,” she said. “Now their curiosity will be piqued.”
Coffey, 36, grew up in Chambersburg and turned professional artist in 2012 after a brief career in engineering.
His Tarentum creations, completed with spray paint, will take more than 60 hours.
The result is eye-catching murals on each side of the building.
Playful and bright, on one side are dogs leaping through a field, a cat perched on a tree branch, a giant purple birdhouse and yellow sunflowers.
The theme is based on the Paws mission to make animals’ lives better, Coffey said.
“They just needed some help so people knew what they were doing here,” he said.
“This will serve as a big, bright visual to meet the animals when they arrive each weekend.”
Because the group is foster-based, they only can rescue as many animals as there are people committed to their temporary care.
Prearranged fosters keep the animals at least two weeks to make sure they are vaccinated, spayed or neutered and receive any medication. All of the services are paid for by Paws, which is supported by public fundraisers.
In 2022, Paws rescued more than 1,200 dogs and cats, Abel-Stavropoulos said.
And the group serves more than just the Alle-Kiski Valley.
Its reach is impressive — Coffey’s art teacher in Chambersburg contacted him to say two of his rescue dogs came from the Tarentum facility.
Coffey expects to finish the project this week.
In the rear yard, he built a wall to paint a rainbow bridge where donors can purchase tags in memory of fosters who have died.
In all, the murals cover 1,000 square feet around the building.
“People have already started to notice,” Needham said. “We see them walking by and pointing.”