Our Partners, Our Friends
Contributed by: Jose Santiago, Maricopa County Animal Care and Control
What does it take to run the second largest county intake shelter in the country?
A lot of patience. A lot of love. Most importantly, a lot of help!
Every year, Maricopa County Animal Care and Control take in nearly 40-thousand animals a year. These are animals that are homeless, surrendered and in many cases abandoned by whatever family they may have known. We do so with minimal sponsored funds from our local government. In many cases, a lot of these animals come into us sick, injured or simply in dire need of attention we cannot always afford to provide them. This is where some of our partner groups step in.
One of those groups is the Arizona Animal Rescue Mission, also known as AARM. They truly are like an “arm” to us because they provide us a lot of support in both emotional and financial ways. AARM’s sole purpose to get us with the things we need to care for animals. Our East shelter has smaller kennels than we like. That means several hundred animals sometimes spend upwards of 23 hours a day in cramped conditions. When we asked AARM for help, they jumped in with a mobile pet treadmill program. Every week a mobile treadmill shows up to the kennel that allows dogs to run, exercise and exert energy. This makes them happy, healthier and most importantly ADOPTABLE. This isn’t the only thing AARM has provided. They have bought the shelter much needed, medically graded flea and tick medication. Supplies to handle the transports of some animals to other shelters. They have funded surgical procedures for dogs requiring medical attention outside of what we can provide. Also, when the two shelter locations are full, AARM and their AARMy step up and sponsor adoptions to help find the animals their forever homes. With only 750-thousand-dollars of our 16-million-dollar budget provided to us by the County, we cannot do our work without AARM.
Another group that has stepped up to help us out has been the Two Pups Wellness Fund. When we see an animal in medical distress, most of the time Two Pups comes to the rescue. Most recently we had a dog by the name of Poppy come into the shelter. Poppy has an injured hind leg. We called Two Pups, and they immediately jumped into action getting her to an Emergency Veterinary Hospital, checked out and prepared for whatever medical attention she needed. Two Pups has also helped us with programs for some of our more senior dogs, by not only sponsoring their adoptions but any medical attention they may need. Without their help and support, many animals would not only have had a second chance with a family…but many would have never survived.
Groups like these are vital to not only our animal’s survival but our survival as an organization. For the last two years, 96-percent of the animals within our care have walked out on their own. That is a feat that is unheard of for most organizations, but especially for a government funded one. We are proud of our numbers, our work, our survival rate. We are grateful for the help we are given. Grateful for these groups that help us do what we do.
