Maddie's Fund® envisions a time when animal shelters will truly be shelters – temporary refuge for nurturing and rehabilitation of dogs and cats awaiting loving new homes. In order for this to happen, we need to prevent healthy shelter pets from getting sick and help the sick pets get well. Most animal shelters today lack professionally trained veterinary staff to maintain wellness programs and/or comprehensive treatment programs for the very young, sick, injured and poorly behaved.
Maddie's Fund has elected to support U.S. Colleges of Veterinary Medicine that are seeking to establish shelter medicine programs that support the no-kill philosophy. We are providing funding for the development and implementation of shelter medicine programs that will ultimately improve the quality of shelter pets' lives, reduce shelter deaths, increase the adoption of shelter animals and lay the foundation for saving all treatable shelter pets.
Through newly developed curricula, hands-on shelter experience, and shelter related research, shelter medicine programs will introduce veterinary students to this newly emerging discipline of veterinary medicine and create a well-informed pool of shelter medicine specialists for the future.
As lifesaving efforts for healthy animals improve, all shelters* – traditional, animal control and adoption guarantee – will be able to focus more attention and resources on treatable animals – the very young, sick, injured and poorly behaved. A new generation of shelter veterinarians is desperately needed to administer medical and behavioral care for shelter dogs and cats with contagious diseases, behavior disorders and other ailments.
Maddie's® Shelter Medicine Grant Options**
* For more information on shelter types, please refer to PDF Appendix I.
** Before making an application for one or more grant option(s), please review the eligibility requirements listed in the guidelines for each option. Download a PDF version of the Guidelines.
Maddie's Fund staff is more than happy to clarify our guidelines and eligibility requirements and to answer questions about proposal development. For more information about Maddie's® Shelter Medicine grants, please e-mail us at info@maddies.org or call us at (510) 337-8989.
