Santa Maria Valley Humane Society: P.L.A.Y. Pet Beds Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Santa Maria Valley Humane Society accepted 77 dogs and cats from Ventura County Animal Services, Santa Barbara County Animal Services and Rancho Cucamonga Animal Services so that those agencies had the capacity for immediate front-line fire-evacuation needs. The animals accepted at our shelter were already available for adoption or had completed their stray-hold period before the fire emergency, so no evacuated animals were separated from their human families who may have been looking for them.
The catnip toys and lush, wonderful beds were used in our enrichment program to help the cats and dogs transferred to our organization become comfortable in their temporary environment, so those animals could eventually find homes. We were able to post super-cute photos and stories to Facebook showing the newly arrived dogs and cats playing with their toys and snuggling on their beds.
The Santa Maria Valley Humane Society is a vibrant and exciting organization that exists to rescue, shelter, heal, place, and train dogs and cats while engaging our Central California Coastal communities through education and advocacy to end animal homelessness. Through our state-of-the art Edwin & Jeanne Woods Animal Care Complex, the professional staff and volunteers of the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society have placed 13,370 homeless dogs and cats into new and loving homes and our highly-skilled veterinarians have helped and healed an additional 36,712 dogs and cats.
Our signature Open Paw manners and skills training for shelter pets is a model program that helps to prepare shelter pets for their new homes. Every pet has interactions with 20 people per day, we use toys and food puzzles for mental stimulation, and every cat and dog has a den or warm, cozy bed. We have demonstrated that, by familiarizing pets with people and creating a model environment, our adoptable animals are calm, present in a positive light to shelter visitors, and are adopted more quickly.
The bed grant from P.L.A.Y. enabled us to meet our enrichment goals and provide the very best care for the evacuated animals. The selection of items was perfect and every item has been used. In fact, most of the beds are now being used by new canine residents!
How many pets did this grant help?
77
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
When Santa Maria Valley Humane Society accepted dozens of animals from shelters in the Woolsey Fire-affected area, our partners at the Petfinder Foundation and P.L.A.Y. stepped up to help with emergency grant funds and lots of cozy dog and cat beds. The Humane Society received a total of 77 dogs and cats who had been at Ventura County Animal Services, Santa Barbara County Animal Services and other area animal-rescue organizations. Those pets were transported to Santa Maria to free up space for pets who were in need of evacuation from the fire. Here you can see several transferred dogs and cats enjoying their comfy new beds. From top to bottom: Ronan, Sachi and Harry. All of them have since been adopted.
