League for Animal Welfare: Kia Pet Adoption Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The grant helped sponsor a free adoption event at a partner company, Oasis Turf & Tree. We extended the offer of free adoptions to the week preceding the event as well, so free adoptions were offered July 8-14. The goal was to spur adoptions at an historically slow time of year: the thick of the summer months.
The event was held on July 13 and, altogether, 54 adoptions were completed through the sponsorship. That represents a 72% increase from 2023 in the same period. Most crucially, it was a 160% increase in adoptions for dogs, whose adoptions at our shelter, and nationwide, have been critically and urgently low since 2023.
How many pets did this grant help?
54
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Bobbie Sue (first photo), Billy Joe (second photo), and their five puppies — Cash, Loot, C-Note, Cash Money, and Moola — were abandoned in a trailer. The trailer was locked, and it’s not clear how long they had been in there — but given the state of the trailer, it had been likely weeks. Billy Joe finally broke through a window to free himself, and led park management to the trailer where Bobbie Sue and the puppies were rescued.
When Bobbie Sue finally got to our shelter, she was terribly emaciated, with infected and itchy skin. She was carried into our shelter separately from her five puppies. Trying to get her intake photo, we offered Bobbie Sue a treat. In spite of having clearly been starving, she was uninterested and anxious.
We tried to get her attention with our squeaky chicken toy (our go-to for photos!). She was still anxiously looking everywhere but at us. Finally, a lightbulb went off for one of our staffers: She held up one of Bobbie Sue’s puppies. That was all this sweet momma cared about, and she immediately relaxed when she saw her puppies were safe and still with her (third photo).
We didn’t have space in the shelter for this little family, but we couldn’t say no. With kennel space at a crisis level, we were so happy when four of the five puppies found loving families at our adoption event thanks to the Petfinder Foundation.
