The lines started early this past Saturday morning for hundreds of Paulding County families who are struggling with the costs of keeping their family pets. By 1:30 a.m., there were 40 cars filled with people and their pets at Earl Duncan Park at Paulding Meadows waiting for the 9 a.m. start time for Beat the Heat 2013 – a community outreach effort to bring assistance to people and their pets. Click here to read a previous article on this event.
Thanks to the combined efforts of a number of organizations - Pet Buddies Food Pantry, Friends to the Forlorn Pit Bull Rescue, LifeLine Animal Project, Dogs on Death Row, Stubby’s Heroes and the Spay Neuter Coalition - over 700 pets received much needed assistance in the form of vaccinations, pet food and certificates for spay/neuter surgeries during this effort.
“Beat the Heat 2013” was a life changing event for all of the families who showed up – it allows them to keep their pets without having to choose between paying for household necessities like rent and utilities or paying to have their precious pets vaccinated and spayed or neutered. This event also provided free pet food for these families. It was evident that these are people who truly love their dogs and cats and are willing to do whatever it takes to keep them.
Below is an email received by Pet Buddies Food Pantry from one of the individuals who received services during the event (from the Pet Buddies Facebook page):
“Strider and I want to thank you with all of our hearts for caring enough to host the Beat the Heat event in Paulding County today!!!! We are amazed by the compassion and generosity that we experienced at this wonderful event, and I'm so grateful that my precious 4-legged child is now current on all his shots and routine vetting.
Like many others, I experienced long term unemployment and came very, very close to losing my home. Although I managed to keep Strider fed, there wasn't any money for his vetting and I felt like a failure as his mom. I was recently blessed with a job, but the repayment plan to my mortgage company takes almost 60% of my earnings.
Since there isn't any extra money right now it would have been October before I would have been able to take Strider in to get his shots and this was extremely upsetting to me. But thanks to your massive efforts and dedication, I now have peace of mind and my beloved Strider has his rabies vaccine and other shots up to date. Words are inadequate to express our gratitude, but THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU...YOU ALL ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please keep my email, because the next time that you host an event in the Atlanta area I want to volunteer to help you in any way that I can. It's the least I can do, and it would mean a lot to me to help other pet parents in my situation.”
Click here to read more about the success of Beat the Heat on Facebook.
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