For the past 5 years, I have been working to turn Phoenix,
including Maricopa County, into a no kill community. Our town kills thousands
of adoptable cats and dogs every year because of our terrible rescue system. I
set out to change that in 2013, and continue to pursue change. I started talking
about this with rescue friends. Others have had similar ideas, but they needed
to be coordinated into a working group.
The first meeting, we were sitting at an outside restaurant
table at Tempe Marketplace, discussing this as a concept. That led to numerous
private meetings at libraries to dissect the problem and to gather information.
Citizens Animal Welfare Society was established in 2015 to attempt to privatize
Maricopa County Animal Care and Control. That project has melded into the
PATCHES Project, a shared workspace/ shelter project to take in the overflow
animals of the County and to support all the good animal rescue organizations
in our community.
This afternoon, we have a meeting with our development team.
We are preparing to build and operate our own private animal shelter, called
PATCHES. You can learn more about it by going to PatchesAZ.org. We have
assembled a fine team of professionals. We are here to help. PATCHES is not an
adversarial organization. It is here to open several private non-profit
shelters throughout Maricopa County.
Many fine people have come and gone along the way. Lives change,
people have other ideas, relationships change. What hasn’t changed is that
innocent adoptable pets are being killed. That still is my passion, and the
passion of our team.
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