Animal Alliance is a registered, 501(c)3, non-profit organization, staffed almost entirely by volunteers. We rescue cats, dogs, kittens, and puppies from overcrowded, overburdened animal shelters and animal control holding facilities and place them into the safety of our foster care network.  We accept guardian surrenders on a case by case basis, as space allows.  Our foster care program includes many private homes where singles, couples, or families with children welcome in foster animals who will reside with them until adoption.  Additionally, Animal Alliance has a proprietary kennel exclusively for foster dogs, which is essentially a shelter.  It is on the property of one of the Founders of Animal Alliance, and the dogs in the kennel are cared for by a part-time paid kennel staff, and the animals are seen, visited, and interacted with constantly by on-site resident Founder and volunteers.  The only paid employees at Animal Alliance are the kennel staff, other than a part time administrative assistant; everyone else is volunteers.

Due to the hideous pet overpopulation problem in the U.S., many shelters we work with have no choice but to euthanize (put to sleep) perfectly nice animals to make way for the endless stream of new animals that arrive at their door each day. Animal Alliance believes in the value of the lives of these creatures, and in giving them a second chance at life with guardians who will love and treasure them as members of the family.  Once in the care of Animal Alliance, all animals are spayed/neutered, brought current on vaccinations, de-wormed, and treated for any maladies such as fleas, skin dermatitis, and other treatable disorders.  Many animals also receive professional grooming and dental cleaning, or specialty veterinary care such as orthopedic surgery in order to ready them for adoption.  Animal Alliance strives to place the animals in our care into the most appropriate permanent living situation.  Each one of our pets remains in foster care until it is matched with a permanent home. 

We do not euthanize animals in our care unless they are gravely ill and every attempt to heal them has been exhausted, or if they are aggressive with people or other animals (thankfully, these are rare occurrences).

Many shelters and rescue groups, including Animal Alliance now use the “Asilomar Accords” to guide their statistical reporting to the public.  The Asilomar Accords are an agreed upon set of guidelines created by the major animal welfare organizations in the United States as a way to standardize results of shelters and to unify organizations who are working in parallel towards the same goal or reducing animal overpopulation and increasing pet adoption.  The Asilomar Accords define what constitutes “healthy,” “treatable,” (meaning with treatment, the animal will become adoptable), and “unhealthy and/or untreatable” animals.  This uniform definition helps shelters properly categorize the number of animals euthanized and the number adopted. 

For example, the euthanasia of an unhealthy/untreatable animal might be an animal with catastrophic and painful injuries sustained from being hit by a car, certainly the most humane option for the animal.  The euthanasia of a treatable animal might be the euthanasia of an animal with kennel cough that could be treated with antibiotics.  While treatment will heal the afflicted animal, the rest of the shelter could be infected with the kennel cough, so euthanasia of that one animal could prevent contagion and illness in the rest of the shelter.  The euthanasia of a healthy animal is what we all work against.  Animal Alliance’s rescued animals tend to fall into the treatable category, meaning they would be ineligible for adoption due to their treatable medical condition, such as injury (broken limb, burns, wounds) or illness (kennel cough, upper respiratory infection, fleas, ear mites, mange, ear infections, dry eye, periodontal disease) or grotesque grooming cases where an animal has to be shaved to the skin (often under surgical anesthesia) to eliminate hair overgrowth and matting often seen in strays or neglected animals.

Animal Alliance treats all treatable medical conditions and allow our adopters to consider adoption of all our foster animals, regardless of age.  Animal Alliance typically has animals ranging in age from 8 weeks to 14 years available for adoption!

Animal Alliance places approximately 500 animals each year into adoptive homes, all of whom were altered prior to adoption.  More than 3,000 animals have found their “forever homes” via Animal Alliance since its inception in 2002.