I've always been an animal lover, in fact, cruelty to animals angers me far more than cruelty to humans. I've always wanted to volunteer and help however I can, and recently I've finally decided to stop thinking about and wishing I could and DO IT.

My main goal is to support Maddie's Fund, an organization dedicated to ELIMINATING THE KILLING OF HEALTHY AND RECOVERABLE ANIMALS IN SHELTERS ONCE AND FOR ALL, starting city by city. The cities of San Francisco, Jacksonville and Tampa are just a few examples of cities that have succesfully become No-Kill Shelter cities, and Gainesville is well on its way. Gainesville has its own chapter of Maddie's Fund, a collaboration of six local organizations that strive to:
1.) Control the population of homeless animals through spaying/neutering.
2.) Find loving, permanent homes for those animals who are homeless.
3.) Eliminate the euthanasia (killing) of healthy or recoverable animals in shelters by providing loving, temporary homes until they find their "permanent home".

The six organizations in Gainesville are:
1.) Alachua County Humane Society (Lead Agency) (website)
2.) Alachua County Animal Services (website)
3.) Puppy Hill Farms Pet Rescue (website)
4.) Helping Hands Pet Rescue
5.) Haile's Angels Pet Rescue (website)
6.) Gainesville Pet Rescue (website)

To show you just how far these organizations have come in just four years:
"In baseline year 2000, Gainesville's rescue and animal control facilities impounded 11,484 dogs and cats and euthanized 8,063. Of those, approximately 3,664 were healthy. At the end of Year Four, Maddie'sŪ Pet Rescue Project in Alachua County had reduced total shelter deaths to 4,071 and healthy deaths to 61. Alachua County was able to go eight months with zero healthy deaths."


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