Media Release

 

ALACHUA COUNTY -  Whether you are a doting pet owner or just enjoy being around cats, dogs—or any animal for that matter—becoming a Maddie's Pet Rescue of Alachua County volunteer is a great way to spread your love.  Hundreds of animals each month would benefit from your service and kind heart.

           

Maddie's Pet Rescue of Alachua County is a non-profit organization consisting of six area animal rescue groups -  Alachua County Animal Services, Alachua County Humane Society, Gainesville Pet Rescue, Inc., Haile’s Angel Pet Rescue, Helping Hands Pet Rescue and Puppy Hill Farm Pet Rescue.  This local organization finds permanent, loving homes for about 300 animals each month.  While the homeless animals are waiting for a family to take them home, there's a lot to be done to ensure their health and well-being.

           

Enjoy interacting with animals? Artistic?  Business-minded?  Detail-oriented?  Whatever your talent, there is a volunteer opportunity for you.  Choose from animal-based volunteer opportunities such as becoming a foster parent (which includes free training as well as food and animal health services), walking and playing with the animals, and helping to keep their temporary homes clean to talent-based opportunities such as public relations, fundraising and coordination of various events, retail, and so much more! The volunteer schedule is flexible, allowing you to commit based on your free time.  Experience is not required, however, Maddie's Pet Rescue welcomes any you can bring.  Be a part of a rewarding experience by becoming a volunteer.

Maddie's Fund is a family foundation funded by PeopleSoft Founder Dave Duffield and his wife, Cheryl, to help create a no-kill nation.  The first step is to help develop programs that guarantee loving homes for all healthy shelter dogs and cats throughout the country.  The next step will be to save the sick and injured pets and animal shelters nationwide.

 

The organization’s goal is to end the euthanasia of healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats in Alachua County by June 30, 2011.  In the first five years of Maddie's Pet Rescue Project of Alachua County, the partners were able to significantly increase adoptions and drastically decrease the number of pets euthanized; adoptions have gone up from 692 pets to 2,708 and the total euthanasia of pets has gone down from more than 8,000 pets to just over 4,000 pets annually.  

Maddie's Fund is named after the family’s beloved Miniature Schnauzer who passed away in 1997. 

 

For more information about becoming a foster parent or a volunteer, contact  Alachua County Animal Services at 264-6870 or  Chase Wiley at the Alachua County Humane Society, (352) 373-5855, ext. 15, or visit www.maddiespetrescueofalachua.org

 

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