Austin Pets Alive! Receives Large Transportation Donation from National Animal Welfare Leader Best Friends Animal Society

Jan 02, 2012

Austin Pets Alive! Receives Large Transportation Donation from National Animal Welfare Leader Best Friends Animal Society

Nonprofit organization to utilize vehicle for mobile adoptions and rescue transport to keep Austin no-kill

AUSTIN, TEXAS (January 2, 2012) - Local Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) is receiving a large donation in the form of a 22 foot truck for mobile adoptions and rescue transport from the national animal welfare organization Best Friends Animal Society. Inside the donated truck is more $15,000 worth of high-quality dog treats for APA!’s rescued dogs.

Austin is receiving two gifts in one with this generous donation that will have far reaching effects for the city’s continued no-kill goal. The truck itself will be used for both cat and dog mobile adoption events and will also be kept on-hand for the transportation of rescued animals in the Austin area, which will save hundreds more lives each year. Additionally, Austin and APA! will benefit from one-on-one time with some of the key players at the country’s largest no-kill sanctuary.

"We're so thankful for this generous donation from our friends and mentors at Best Friends Animal Society," said Ellen Jefferson, executive director of Austin Pets Alive! "We will be able to save an additional 500 lives per year with this vehicle, which will allow us to do mobile adoptions and also serve as a transport vehicle for rescue situations, like the night the Bastrop shelter was evacuated due to the wildfires."

Driving the truck from Kanab, Utah, where Best Friends operates the nation’s largest sanctuary for abused, abandoned animals, is expert dog trainer John Garcia, who manages Best Friends emergency response activities. Garcia is best known for his appearances on the National Geographic Channel program “DogTown,” which ran for three seasons and chronicled Best Friends’ work.

APA! is hopeful that John can share some insight on how to save more large dogs with rehabilitatable behavior issues that are currently not making it out of the Austin shelter alive to increase the number of lives saved in Austin. APA! has identified the need for a large-scale behavior program budgeted at $300,000 a year to be truly no-kill for large breed dogs.

”We are happy to make this donation to Austin Pets Alive!,” said John Polis, senior manager of public relations at Best Friends. “We trust that the truck will be of great use to the organization and that over time its use will contribute to many more animal lives being saved.”

APA! will be hosting a welcome party at their Town Lake Animal Center site (1156 W. Cesar Chavez) when the truck arrives in Austin on Monday, January 2 at 10 a.m. Media are welcome to attend, and interviews with both APA! and Best Friends spokespeople will be available.

About Austin Pets Alive!

Austin Pets Alive! is a non-profit organization of volunteers dedicated to promoting and providing the resources, education and programs needed to eliminate the killing of companion animals. The organization's purpose is two-fold: to provide the services needed to save the lives of the thousands of pets killed every year at city shelters and to prevent them from getting there in the first place. Austin Pets Alive! was voted reader's choice as 'Best Nonprofit' in the Austin Chronicle's 2011 'Best of Austin' list.

About Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends Animal Society is a nonprofit organization building no-kill programs and partnerships that will bring about a day when there are No More Homeless Pets®.  The society's leading initiatives in animal care and community programs are coordinated from its Kanab, Utah, headquarters, the country's largest no-kill sanctuary.  This work is made possible by the personal and financial support of a grassroots network of supporters and community partners across the nation.

###