Press Room

MADDIE’S FUND TO GIVE $3.1 MILLION
TO FLORIDA COALITION

Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project Funded to Save All of Gainesville’s Healthy Shelter Dogs and Cats Within Five Years

(Alameda-July 2002) Maddie’s Fund has awarded $336,500 to support the first year of Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project to end the killing of healthy shelter dogs and cats in Gainesville and the surrounding Alachua County, Florida within five years. As goals are achieved, Maddie’s Fund will make a total of $3.1 million available to the Project.

Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project is a coalition consisting of the no-kill lead agency Alachua County Humane Society, along with Alachua County Animal Services, Gainesville Pet Rescue, Puppy Hill Farm, West End Animal Hospital, Haile Plantation Animal Clinic, the University of Florida’s Operation Catnip program and 26 out of the 28 private veterinary hospitals operating in the county.

The Coalition’s first year goals are to increase the number of adoptions by 733 over the same period last year, and to increase the number of spay/neuter surgeries by 3,665.

“This project is very exciting to Maddie’s Fund because it contains so many unique features,” says Maddie’s Fund President Rich Avanzino.

Gainesville (pop. 218,000) is a university town, located in north central Florida. The community is very pro-animal and recently passed both city and county resolutions to end the euthanasia of healthy animals in five years. The media and business community have also shown tremendous support for the animal welfare cause.

Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project offers some new twists to pet rescue. Among them: “Maddie’s Adopt-A-Pet-From-Your-Vet” through which seventeen veterinary hospitals will work with foster families to help find new homes for abandoned dogs and cats.

Adoptathons, a spay/neuter voucher program, a “Pennies for Pets” fundraising campaign and a public relations campaign will also play important roles in the Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project.

Says Avanzino, “The cooperative spirit in Gainesville is incredible. The entire community is dedicated to achieving a single goal, and I think this will be the key to the Project’s success.”

To follow the progress of Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project in Alachua County, Florida, log on to the Maddie’s Fund website www.maddiesfund.org and go to Funded Projects.


Maddie’s Fund, The Pet Rescue Foundation (www.maddiesfund.org), is a family foundation endowed through the generosity of Cheryl and Dave Duffield, PeopleSoft Founder and Board Chairman. The foundation is helping to fund the creation of a no-kill nation. The first step is to help create programs that guarantee loving homes for all adoptable (healthy) shelter dogs and cats throughout the country. The next step will be to save the sick and injured pets in animal shelters nationwide. Maddie’s Fund is named after the family’s beloved Miniature Schnauzer who passed away in 1997.