Planned Pethood of Georgia

Today, on GA Gives Day, we traveled to Haralson County to rescue 44 animals! We have increased our goal to $15,000 to cover the medical bills of the 44 animals we rescued today. Thank you for being our lifeline for Georgia's animals.

2020 has been one heck of a year. Help us kick it to the curb and usher in a brighter 2021 for Georgia's animals. Plus, EVERY DONATION WILL BE DOUBLED BY A GENEROUS DONOR. TURN $25 INTO $50 WITH ONE CLICK.

Since 2010, Planned PEThood of Georgia has been assisting pets in and around the Gwinnett area. What began as a rescue program and low-cost spay/neuter clinic has morphed into one of the only programs in the metro Atlanta area that tackles pet welfare from a 360-degree approach with six stellar programs. Each of our community assistance programs have been affected in dramatic ways through revenue loss or loss of access to vital services. Below you can learn about each program and how COVID-19 has affected each program.

1. Spay/Neuter Clinic - Our low-cost spay/neuter clinic offers high-quality surgeries to the Gwinnett County community, the second largest county in the state with a population of more than 936,000. In 2019, our clinic operated on 8,541 pets, and we have performed more than 55,000 surgeries since inception.

Our low-cost spay/neuter clinic typically operates four days a week on owned pets, community cats, and pets from local rescue organizations, including our own internal rescue program. Each week our spay/neuter clinic performs about 200 surgeries and generates approximately $20,000 in revenue. (We have lost about $120,000 in revenue)

2. Rescue Program - Our foster-based rescue program saved the lives of 1,004 animals in 2019. Our amazing team of fosters and volunteers manage adoption centers inside four local pet stores as well as adoption events each weekend.

The demand for rescuing animals has gone up dramatically with shelters across the state closed. In April, our team rescued 105 animals in need. Each animal costs at least $100 in the beginning to provide veterinary care resulting in more than $10,000 in rescue funds needed in one month.

3. Vaccination Clinics - Our monthly vaccination clinics offer basic veterinary needs such as vaccinations, microchips, and heartworm medication to the community at heavily discounted rates while never compromising quality of care. In 2019, our monthly clinics served 3,159 pets.

Our monthly vaccination clinics, which typically generate $10,000-$12,000, were canceled earlier this year. However, we have been able to help puppies and kittens through appointment based clinics. We are serving less than half the animals we were serving prior to COVID-19.

4. Community Cat Program/TNR - Our clinic serves as the only place in our county where residents can borrow humane traps, learn how to use them, and then bring their feral/community cats in for spay/neuter. Our staff trapped and altered 641 community cats in 2019, and assisted the public in trapping an additional 2,000+ on their own through our programs.

Feral/community cats were not trapped/fixed for the six weeks during the Spring resulting in hundreds to thousands of additional unwanted kittens. This will have significant negative effects on our cat population in Gwinnett for years to come. 

5. Go Fix Georgia - Developed in May 2019, this new program aims to aid rural and remote counties in Georgia by providing access to affordable spay/neuter. Since launching, 808 animals from Newton Animal Control have left alive on our weekly transport through rescue or adoption, thus increasing their overall live release rate from 45% in 2018 to 70% in 2019.

Our Go Fix Georgia program was unable to operate for six weeks in the Spring with county shelters closed. This left animals across Georgia vulnerable and unaltered. 

6. Our medical team manages and facilitates the veterinary contract at Gwinnett County Animal Welfare and Enforcement. This means we ensure the medical health and well-being of all the animals that enter the county's municipal shelter. Our team spays and neuters the animals, ensures they are vaccinated appropriately and guides the shelter through critical medical decisions.

Luckily, our work at the Gwinnett County Shelter has not stopped and the animals coming in are receiving the care they need. However, the shelter has been closed to the public so the number of animals being served has dropped significantly.