Grant to help patients with pets focus on quality of life.
Pet Peace of Mind, Inc. recently received a $50,000 grant from PetSmart Charities, the leading funder of animal welfare in North America, designed to help keep more people and pets together.
When people are experiencing life changes and challenges such as serious or terminal illness, having a pet can add an extra layer of complexity and concern. Pet parents in these situations often feel that they have no other option but to surrender their beloved pets to local animal welfare organizations.
But with the help of this new grant, Pet Peace of Mind, Inc. is committed to offering solutions that will help pets to stay within their loving homes and families. The Pet Peace of Mind program recognizes and actively supports the unique bond between patients and their pets by allowing patients to complete their end of life journey without worrying about their pet’s current or future needs. The program trains hospices how to utilize services delivered by volunteers to provide pet care services for patients who are no longer able to care for their pets. Some of these services are dog walking and play, canine and feline waste clean-up, re-stocking pet food, transporting pets to veterinary or grooming appointments, arranging boarding when the patient must spend time in the hospital, and helping find new homes for pets after the patient’s death. The PetSmart Charities grant will be used to fund a major program expansion by hiring a program manager to push the program out to 15 new hospice partners.
“We couldn’t be more excited about this remarkable gift from PetSmart Charities. The addition of a staff member to train new program partners allows us to double the number of programs we are launching within the next year,” said Dianne McGill, President of Pet Peace of Mind. “The human-animal bond is incredibly special, and we are committed to helping preserve this bond for any patient who needs assistance. Many patients cannot imagine navigating their end of life journey without their pets. This program provides a practical solution to helping them remain together until the end. Once patients become too ill to care for their pets, Pet Peace of Mind volunteers are there to meet their needs.”
“We are excited to support the work of Pet Peace of Mind and its unique initiative in a shared mission to keep people and pets together,” said Jenny Aho, regional relationship manager. “With the expansion of the program, more pet families across the country will remain together through patients’ end of life, and their pets placed in loving homes. Pet Peace of Mind will continue to speak for patients when they are no longer able to speak for their pets.”
Pet retention is just one of PetSmart Charities’ seven grant categories. Funding from PetSmart Charities supports animal welfare organizations and social service agencies committed to reducing pet homelessness and enhancing the human-animal bond. For more information, visit www.PetSmartCharities.org.
Founded in 2009, Pet Peace of Mind is the only national organization offering this program to the hospice and palliative care community. For more information about Pet Peace of Mind or to find a hospice offering the program in your area, visit http://petpeaceofmind.org.
About Pet Peace of Mind
Pet Peace of Mind is a 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Salem, Oregon. Since 2009, we have partnered with hospice and palliative care organizations to enrich the quality of life and well-being of their patients by providing a national support network to help care for the pets they love. Our program provides a turnkey approach to help them establish a local program to train volunteers to help patients with their pet care needs. We help them deliver help when and where it is needed and provide ongoing support so they are never going it alone. We envision a nation where all patients have the support they need to maintain the loving bond with their pets.
About PetSmart Charities, Inc.
PetSmart Charities, Inc. is committed to finding lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets together. Through its in-store adoption program in all PetSmart® stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, PetSmart Charities helps to find forever homes and families for more than 500,000 shelter pets each year. PetSmart Charities also provides grant funding to nonprofits aligned with its mission under four key areas of support: Preventing Pet Homelessness; Helping Shelter Pets Thrive; Supporting the Bond Between People and Pets and Providing Emergency Relief and Disaster Support. Each year, millions of generous PetSmart shoppers help pets in need by donating to PetSmart Charities using the PIN pads at checkout registers inside PetSmart stores. In turn, PetSmart Charities efficiently uses more than 90 cents of every dollar donated to fulfill its role as the leading funder of animal welfare in North America, granting almost $340 million since its inception in 1994. Independent from PetSmart Inc., PetSmart Charities is a 501(c)(3) organization that has received the Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator, a third-party organization that reports on the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of nonprofits, for the past 15 years in a row – placing it among the top one percent of charities rated by this organization.
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