AOH receives $41,850 grant from PetSmart Charities® to help homeless pets
Dayton, Minn. – February 29, 2020
This weekend Angel of Hope Animal Rescue (AOH) celebrated PetSmart’s National Pet Adoption Weekend with four successful adoption events at our PetSmart partner locations. In addition to several adoptions, we also have some amazing news: AOH has received a $41,850 grant from PetSmart Charities to help prepare more shelter pets in Minnesota for adoption and ensure they are ready to find loving homes! With the help of this grant, Angel of Hope will expand its vetting capacity for pets in our care to support our efforts to help homeless pets find homes.
Pets that join Angel of Hope Animal Rescue cannot be released for adoption until appropriate vetting is complete. This often slows down pets being able to move to their adoptive homes. This generous grant will support the purpose of additional equipment that will allow our in-house surgery suite to handle a higher volume of spay/neuters, and specialty surgeries, such as dentals.
“Our goal is to not only reduce the homeless pet population through spay/neutering; but to allow our foster pets to be ready to find their adoptive homes as quickly as they can,” says Laura Uecker, Executive Director for Angel of Hope Animal Rescue. With the assistance of this grant from PetSmart Charities, Angel of Hope is able to increase their vetting capacity by obtaining more equipment such as additional prep and surgery tables.”
In the month of February alone, Angel of Hope’s vetting team has done nine specialty surgeries on cats in need and one specialty surgery on a dog. Here are a few of their stories, click on the links to learn more:
We did two partial tail amputations due to frostbite, one on a cat we named Frostbite, and another on Mr. Monk.
Miss Jackie joined us from a local shelter with a badly scarred eye that our vet felt would cause her issues in the future so we opted to remove it.
We had a 6-month-old girl, Callie join us from a Northern Minnesota Rescue with a ruptured eye. She arrived at AOH and within a few minutes our vet team started her on pain meds and prepped her for surgery to remove the eye.
Then we had four-month-old Boom Boom who was part of an unplanned litter and given away as a puppy. Before being turned over to rescue Boom Boom was left to be an “outside dog.” Unfortunately he was too young for that and lost all of his toes on a rear foot, and part of his tail to frostbite.
We also had two leg amputations this month. The two newest members of our tripod squad are Mr. Freeman and Miss Rabbit. Freeman is a total sweetheart that came to us with a deformed leg and severely underweight, he’s currently in foster care trying to gain weight and get ready for his furever home. Miss Rabbit came with two kittens, a stumpy tail, and a deformed front leg that we had to amputate. We believe she may have been caught in a piece of machinery at some point, and that's what lead to the damage of her tail and leg.
AOH also removed both eyes on a blind kitten, Fred, that came in as an owner surrender. He is currently healing in foster care.
In the month of February, in addition to those surgeries, our vet team also removed tumors and performed biopsies, did five dentals, wound triage, and over 200 spay and neuter surgeries. Specialty surgeries are not covered by the adoption fees, so the generous donations from our supporters, help us continue to give these animals some extra love and care before finding their new homes. This grant will allow us to expand our vetting area. Helping us to buy more equipment for our surgery suite, so we can help more animals.
“We are proud to support our longstanding partnership with Angel of Hope and its work to help homeless pets from near and far find loving homes,” said Sophie Faust, associate relationship manager at PetSmart Charities. “It is our hope this funding will help provide more comprehensive care for pets while reducing their stay in shelter.”
Since 1994, through its partnership with nearly 4,000 humane societies, SPCAs and pet rescues across North America, PetSmart Charities has helped more than 9 million pets find loving homes via its in-store adoption program in over 1,650 PetSmart® stores. The leading funder of animal welfare has also donated nearly $400 million to positively impact communities, to help preserve families, to improve access to veterinary care and to connect people and pets through initiatives like this with Angel of Hope Animal Rescue.
About Angel of Hope Animal Rescue:
Angel of Hope Animal Rescue is a Minnesota based 501 c3 pet rescue that works with over 1,300 cats, kittens, puppies and dogs annually. These pets join us from local impounds, shelters and owner surrenders. We have partnerships with animal welfare groups all over from the Dakotas to Texas, even as far as Mexico, and as close as next door. We strive to help as many pets as we can; ensuring we can offer each pet what’s needed to move them to their adoptive homes.
Find Angel of Hope online at: www.aohrescue.org
Follow Angel of Hope on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram: @AOHAnimalRescue
ABOUT PETSMART CHARITIES®:
PetSmart Charities, Inc. is committed to finding lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets together. Through its in-store adoption program in all PetSmart® stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, PetSmart Charities helps to find forever homes and families for more than 500,000 shelter pets each year. PetSmart Charities also provides grant funding to nonprofits aligned with its mission. Each year, millions of generous PetSmart shoppers help pets in need by donating to PetSmart Charities using the PIN pads at checkout registers inside PetSmart stores. In turn, PetSmart Charities efficiently uses more than 90 cents of every dollar donated to fulfill its role as the leading funder of animal welfare in North America, granting more than $390 million since its inception in 1994. Independent from PetSmart Inc., PetSmart Charities is a 501(c)(3) organization that has received the Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator, a third-party organization that reports on the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of nonprofits, for the past 16 years in a row – placing it among the top one percent of charities rated by this organization. To learn more
visit www.petsmartcharities.org.
Follow PetSmart Charities on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PetSmartChariTs
Find PetSmart Charities on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/PetSmartCharities
Follow PetSmart Charities on Instagram: www.instagram.com/PetSmartCharities
See PetSmart Charities on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/PetSmartCharitiesInc
Media Contact:
Laura Uecker, Executive Director, aohbusinessoffice@yahoo.com, 763-445-0717
24-Hour PetSmart Charities Media Line: 623-587-2177