ASPCA Awards $5 Million in Grants to Animal Welfare Organizations

NEW YORK—The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today announced that it has granted $5 million dollars to animal welfare organizations across the country in just the first three months of 2012. A total of 488 grants were issued to 392 organizations in 45 states nationwide in the first quarter of 2012, a 310 percent increase in the number of grants over the same period in 2011.

"Helping organizations across the country save more animals is a major focus of the ASPCA's, and we are blown away by the sheer volume of grant requests we've received thus far," says Michael Barrett, vice president of grants management at the ASPCA. "The $5 million dollars is spread over a wide variety of programs, including spay/neuter, adoption events, scholarships and cruelty and disaster response."

• More than $1.5 million to support approximately 120 spay/neuter programs;
• More than $400,000 toward disaster and emergency response and rescue/seizures of animals from cruelty cases;
• Nearly $700,000 to fund adoption events, working with animals to prepare them for new homes, and relocation programs for the transfer of animals from areas of low demand to areas of higher demand, resulting in better chances of adoption;
• More than $850,000 to assist 150 return-to-owner programs, which includes ID tagging and micro-chipping initiatives, and pet registering programs;
• $88,000 to equine groups for emergency hay and feed, as well as cruelty seizures; and
• More than 100 scholarships to animal welfare professionals and humane law enforcement agents to attend trainings, workshops, and continued learning courses.

To learn more about the ASPCA’s Grants Program, interested animal welfare professionals can visit www.aspcapro.org/Grants.