Rachael Ray Save Them All COVID-19 Relief Grant from Best Friends Animal Society to Help Arlington Pet Owners in Need
By Carol Weemes, Arlington Animal Services
Posted on July 06, 2020, July 06, 2020

Arlington Animal Services is thankful to have received a $2,500 Rachael Ray Save Them All COVID-19 Relief Grant from Best Friends Animal Society to help ensure Arlington pet owners facing financial hardship will not resort to surrendering their pets to the shelter.

Arlington Animal Services is thankful to have received a $2,500 Rachael Ray Save Them All COVID-19 Relief Grant from Best Friends Animal Society to help ensure Arlington pet owners facing financial hardship will not resort to surrendering their pets to the shelter.

This grant helps Animal Services help Arlington residents struggling with providing necessities for their pets, by providing food, crates, mats, bowls, and enrichment toys. In this uncertain time, the goal of this grant is to assist residents as we work to reduce the number of homeless pets, we were on track to save, prior to the pandemic.

In addition to helping keep pets with their owners, this grant also provides starter kits with necessities for stray animals found by Arlington residents to temporarily hold in their care rather than dropping them off at the shelter. You may also report a “Found” pet here.

Animal Services is grateful to our community for their support and appreciate the help from Best Friends Animal Society in making this special assistance possible. Animal Services is an active partner in the Best Friends Network, which offers resources and support to fellow shelters, rescue groups, and animal welfare organizations across the country.

The Rachael Ray Save Them All COVID-19 Relief Program, administered by Best Friends and funded by The Rachael Ray Foundation™, provides COVID-19 relief grants to shelters and rescue groups across the country. The Rachael Ray Foundation helps animals in need and is funded by a portion of proceeds from each sale of Rachael’s pet food Nutrish®.

On March 16, 2020, Arlington Animal Services changed its focus to emergency and priority calls only due to the CDC recommendations and COVID-19 outbreak. The shelter’s management team worked to implement creative and effective measures, setting a goal for release of all healthy animals, which resulted in a 92.84% live release rate for the month of March 2020. Staff continues to deliver innovative and inventive ideas to safely and successfully adopt homeless shelter pets during this devastating time.

About Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends Animal Society is a leading national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters. In addition to running lifesaving programs in partnership with more than 2,800 animal welfare groups across the country, Best Friends has regional centers in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and Houston and operates the nation’s largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals. Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters nationwide from an estimated 17 million per year to around 733,000. That means there are still about 2,000 dogs and cats killed every day in shelters, just because they don’t have safe places to call home. We are determined to bring the country to no-kill by the year 2025. Working collaboratively with shelters, rescue groups, other organizations and you, we will end the killing and Save Them All. To check out our community lifesaving dashboard and for more information, visit bestfriends.org.

Join the conversation on Facebook.com/bestfriendsanimalsociety,Twitter @BestFriends and Instagram @BestFriendsAnimalSociety.

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