Press Room

Contact:

Rich Avanzino, President, Maddie's Fund (510) 337-8979

Erin Lopez, Executive Director, the Alliance for Companion Animals (602) 275-3366

Emily Kane, Executive Director, Arizona Veterinary Medical Association (602) 242-7936

Dog and Cat Adoptions Up 5%; Shelter Deaths Down 23%
in Maricopa County, Arizona

Achievement triggers second year grant

(Alameda, CA – May 2004) A coalition of animal control agencies, traditional shelters, no-kill rescue groups and veterinary hospitals in Maricopa County, Arizona, has produced impressive lifesaving results after one year of operation.

Maddie's® Pet Rescue Project in Maricopa County increased community-wide dog and cat adoptions by 5% over the baseline year, with adoptions at no-kill organizations alone rising 31% over baseline. Total adoptions numbered 37,272.

In the same one-year time period, there were 12,203 fewer shelter deaths, a decrease of 23%.

The community also realized a significant decrease in shelter impounds (13,933 fewer than the baseline year), despite a consistently increasing human population.

"A number of factors have contributed to our success," says Erin Lopez, Executive Director of the Maddie's® Pet Rescue Project. "Increased collaboration among our partners has resulted in creative new adoption strategies, pooling of resources, and a stronger public presence."

While Maddie's Pet Rescue Project increased adoptions and reduced deaths, Maddie's® Spay/Neuter Project, administered by the Arizona Veterinary Medical Association, provided spay/neuter surgery for pets of low-income caregivers. After a slow start, the numbers doubled every quarter. Year One ended with a total of 857 spay/neuter surgeries.

According to Maddie's Fund President, Rich Avanzino, "The first year is always the toughest. It takes a while for all the groups to mesh. Even so, the lead Arizona Animal Welfare League and the coalition partners have done a phenomenal job. In addition to reaching or exceeding all of their above baseline goals, they have developed a strong Community Advisory Board, secured a weekly spot in the Arizona Republic to publish a coalition progress report, and enrolled the support of such corporate heavyweights as PETsMART, Pets 911 and Pet-Ark. I suspect Year Two will be even better."

The Year One statistics triggered the first installment of a $659,370 second year grant for Maddie's® Pet Rescue Project. Groups participating in Year Two include the Arizona Animal Welfare League, Arizona Animal Rescue & Sanctuary, Foothills Animal Rescue, HALO, Paws 4 Paws, SOAR, Sun Cities 4 Paws Rescue, Sun Cities Animal Rescue, the Arizona Humane Society and Maricopa County Animal Care and Control. As goals are achieved, Maddie's Fund intends to provide as much as $3.5 million over seven years to end the killing of healthy shelter animals in Maricopa County. A total $2.5 million will be available to the Arizona Veterinary Medical Association for up to 40,000 spay/neuter surgeries.

To follow the progress of Maddie's® Pet Rescue Project and Maddie's® Spay Neuter Project in Maricopa County, Arizona, log on to the Maddie's Fund website at www.maddiesfund.org/projects.