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2018 Community Mid-Year Report

by | Jul 8, 2018 | 2018, Community outreach, East Side Pet Crisis Fund, East St. Louis, Spay/Neuter, Ways to Donate, Ways to get involved

Dear Gateway Pet Guardians Supporters:

I wanted to take a moment and provide an update on our efforts in the Metro East. We have several programs designed to keep pets with their families and out of the area shelter. I have tried to highlight each of these programs to showcase how our efforts are making an impact.

Community Hotline

We have a special hotline number for community members to call when they need help. We have received 358 calls so far in 2018. To get an idea of the types of calls we receive, I have broken down the 98 phone calls from June:

  • 70 needing services
  • 3 animal control type calls
  • 6 owner surrender
  • 1 donation
  • 3 stray report
  • 7 lost dog
  • 3 emergency
  • 5 other

Those under the “needing services” category are interested in our spay/neuter program, receiving supplies, TNR, or any of the other services we provide. Every one of these phone calls receives a return call, regardless of whether we are able to provide services.

Vaccination Clinic

We hosted our first ever vaccination clinic at Village of Cahokia Park on May 12, 2018. We vaccinated 109 pets and 37 pets signed up to receive spay/neuter services on the day of the event. Additionally, we had residents interested in spay/neuter several weeks before and several weeks after the event.

Read more about our Cahokia clinic by reading the article below:

Our second vaccination clinic is scheduled for October 13, 2018 at Virginia Park in East St. Louis.

Bi-State Pet Food Pantry Partnership

Through our partnership with Bi-State Pet Food Pantry, we are able to help provide food to on average 24 families with pets per month. As of July 1, we have distributed 6,184 pounds of dry dog food and 564 pounds of dry cat food to families with pets. We distribute pet food once a month at the Mary Brown Center in East St. Louis to qualifying families we serve in the Metro East.

Spay/Neuter

As of July 1, we have helped 110 families and fixed 111 dogs and 33 cats. We’ve also trap-neuter-returned (TNR’ed) 101 community cats. We have fixed a total of 245 pets so far in 2018. In June alone, we fixed 68 pets. Additionally, we have provided vaccinations for 254 pets and microchips for 66 pets.

Month Families Dogs Cats TNR Total Fixes Vaccs Chips Calls
01-18 11 11 5 13 29 14 15 23
02-18 16 6 2 36 44 6 7 34
03-18 9 11 4 11 26 14 14 58
04-18 13 13 2 10 25 17 16 55
05-18 16 22 0 21 43 141 21 90
06-18 45 48 20 10 78 62 66 98
Total 110 111 33 101 245 254 139 358

 

Special thank you to Carol House Quick Fix Pet Clinic who performs low-cost surgeries, and BARC who subsidizes those surgeries. Thanks to these partners, our funding goes further and we are able to reach even more pets in need.

Our spay/neuter efforts are funded by a $7,000 grant from Bissell Pet Foundation and a $5,000 grant from Best Friends Animal Society. We also received a $1,000 grant from Community Cats Podcast to fund our TNR efforts.

The grant from Best Friends Animal Society is focused on spay/neuter surgeries in the 62206 zip code (Cahokia, IL). Best Friends awarded Gateway Pet Guardians $5,000 to be used to fund 100 spay/neuter surgeries in this target area. So far in 2018, we have fixed 81 pets from Cahokia.

East Side Pet Crisis Fund

We have spent $8,466.55 on emergency vetting for 31 community pets. Average cost per pet was $273.11. These cases have included ear and skin infections, cuts and wounds, eye removals, and post-trauma treatment.

Note: One case, which was a complication from spay resulting in 4 days of hospitalization, cost our program $2,038.23. If we remove that particular case, cost per pet is $214.28.

Click the links below to learn more about some of the families that we have helped through this special fund:

This program is funded by a $10,000 grant from Banfield Foundation. Special thank you to our partner veterinarians Hillside Animal Hospital and Four Paws Animal Hospital for their extraordinary support in helping community pets.

Grooming

We have paid for grooming services for four pets so far this year, totaling $160. Two of these instances were shelter diversion cases where grooming could help keep the pet in the family’s home instead of being surrendered to a shelter. The remaining two were general wellness to improve the quality of life of the family pet. We partner with Kim Harris with Pet Grooming at Your Doorstep for grooming services. Our goal is to not only provide initial grooming, but also connect the family with a low-cost groomer that provides transportation to continue receiving services on their own dime.

Click the link below to learn about one of the grooming cases we’ve helped with:

Shelter Diversion

These cases involve either preventing intake at St. Clair County Animal Control or returning pets to their owners who cannot afford fees. We spent $115 to keep four pets from entering animal control. We provided required rabies vaccinations and registration fees for three dogs at risk of entering the system, and paid return-to-owner fees for the fourth, highlighted in the story below.

Wellness

Cases that fall in this category are multiple-pet families or special circumstances which require a veterinarian to visit the home. We have spent $101.19 to help 12 pets receive basic vaccinations. In one case, the owner had 11 pets and could not wrangle them all at the clinic. In the other, the pet was arthritic and unable to get into the owner’s truck to go to the vet.

Community Cat Humane Euthanasia

With our community cat program, we have been building relationships with caretakers. These cases occur when caretakers recognize that their cats are suffering from injuries—hit by car, difficult labor, heat stroke, etc. We provide humane euthanasia to end the suffering of the animal at a partner veterinarian. We have spent $593.90 so far in 2018 to help 5 cats.

Supplies

To date in 2018, we have distributed the following supplies to families in the Metro East:

  • 41 doghouses
  • 30 bales of straw
  • 39 tie-outs
  • 2 stakes
  • 47 collars
  • 6 harnesses
  • 22 leashes
  • 27 3-month supplies of flea/tick preventative
  • 7 indoor crates
  • 16 cat shelters
  • 17 bags of cat food to community cat caretakers
  • 2 litterboxes
  • 9 jars of SWAT fly repellant
  • 1 tick removal tool

These supplies were distributed as part of our outreach program. We also distributed several supplies at our Cahokia vaccination clinic, but did not track those supplies given.

We are proud of our efforts in the Metro East so far this year, and are eager to see what the second half of 2018 brings. Keep up with our latest efforts by following our Facebook page or blog, and if you’d like to support our efforts, donate today!

Sincerely,

Janet Roberts
Community Director
Gateway Pet Guardians