As 2016 comes to a close, we revel and reflect about another year gone by. During this celebratory time, you may want to consider a year end gift to an animal welfare organization to help them continue their work for animals in need of safeguarding.
To help find the perfect animal charity, I like to refer to a non profit organization Charity Watch; an independent charity watch dog (no pun intended 🙂 ) giving donors information they need to make informed giving decisions.
Only two Animal Welfare charities receive the highest A+ rating and they are listed below along with charity’s website information. There are more on the Charity Watch top 10 Animal Protection list and they can be viewed here Charity Watch Top Rated Charities . Use the list to find the charities that best target the animals you feel are most in need.
“Never, never be afraid to do what is right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
PetSmart Charities: A+ Rating
PetSmart Charities’ goal is to end pet homelessness for good. They have helped more than 6 million pets find forever homes. That’s 1 out of every 10 adoptions in North America. Here’s how we they do it:
• Adoption centers. All 1,450+ PetSmart stores host Cat Adoption Centers and more than a dozen stores have Dog and Cat Everyday Adoption Centers, which free up space at shelters and help more pets find forever homes.
• Adoption support. Every weekend, you’ll find pets from local shelters available for adoption at PetSmart Charities sponsored events like National Adoption Weekends, neighborhood weekend adoption events and community-wide adoption fairs. Plus, PetSmart Charities provides grant funding to help organizations increase their capacity to save pets’ lives through adoption.
• Emergency relief. PetSmart Charities Emergency Relief program has assisted more than 230,000 pets since 2007 by delivering much-needed supplies to animal rescue groups saving pets from man-made and natural disasters.
• Prevention. PetSmart Charities provides grants that help spay/neuter clinics and animal welfare groups to perform more surgeries and educate communities.
Animal Welfare Institute: A+ Rating
Through engagement with policymakers, scientists, industry, and the public, AWI seeks to:
• Abolish factory farms, support high-welfare family farms, and achieve humane slaughter for animals raised for food;
• Improve the housing and handling of animals in research, and encourage the development and implementation of alternatives to experimentation on live animals;
• End the use of steel-jaw leghold traps and reform other brutal methods of capturing and killing wildlife;
• Preserve species threatened with extinction, and protect wildlife from harmful exploitation and destruction of critical habitat;
• Protect companion animals from cruelty and violence, including appalling conditions in commercial trade; and
• Prevent injury and death of animals caused by harsh transport conditions.
