I recently traveled to Philadelphia, where our Pets for Life program has been serving the North Philadelphia community for the past 13 years. At the unveiling of the program’s new building, I had the honor of talking with dozens and dozens of people about their pets and seeing sweet pictures of their animals. Everyone there considers their pets family members.
In a celebration of the human-animal bond, more than 350 community members attended an “Unpacking Pawty” at our new building. The event was hosted by our More Than a Pet campaign, which celebrates the bond between people and pets by bringing in corporate partners—including Smalls, Tractive, Motel 6 and Hartz—to advance equity in access to care and the goal of keeping pets and their families together. During the event I joined volunteers, colleagues and partners to distribute a total of 14,000 pounds of essential pet food and supplies—all at no cost to families.
Meredith Lee/The HSUS
This is all part of our increased emphasis on access to care, one of the defining animal welfare issues of our time. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joys of caring for a companion animal. But as the costs of keeping and caring for animals increase, along with wide wealth disparities across the U.S., this source of joy can become a source of immense stress: Approximately 20 million pets in the U.S. experience poverty with their families, and 70% of those animals have never seen a veterinarian because the people who love them cannot afford or don’t have access to veterinary services. Yet, only around one in four Americans (28%) is even aware of this national crisis, even though 43% of all pet owners have been unable to pay for their pets’ needs at some point due to financial reasons, according to a Harris Poll survey conducted on our behalf.
For years, our Pets for Life program, along with our Rural Area Veterinary Services program, has been helping to provide pet care resources where they otherwise wouldn’t exist. The More Than a Pet campaign shines a spotlight on this important work and raises awareness of how needed this work is. Through these programs to date, we’ve been able to provide more than 570,000 pets and their families with vital services and resources, such as spay/neuter, wellness care and vaccinations at no cost to the pet’s family. In addition, over $91 million worth of pet resources, including nearly 30 million pounds (13,500 tons) of pet food and 7,700 pallets of pet supplies, have been distributed to pets and families living in historically marginalized communities in all 48 contiguous states and Puerto Rico (31.5% of which went to Native Nations).
Meredith Lee/The HSUS
In Philadelphia, More Than a Pet partners Smalls and Hartz were on-site at Pets for Life. During the event, Smalls served 2,400 free cat meals, handed out cat litter, and debuted the new Smalls Freezer, donated to the Pets for Life Philadelphia team. Going forward, Smalls will keep the freezer stocked with its cat food to further support the community. Hartz distributed hundreds of pet toys and treats. And Tractive provided GPS pet trackers as giveaways to attendees.
As we’ve seen time and again, community members expressed joy and gratitude for this show of support for their families. I'm so glad I could be there, and I look forward to seeing how many more people and pets our access to care programs can help in the future.
Follow Kitty Block @HSUSKittyBlock.
