SPCA of Northern Nevada: Disaster Response and Recovery Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

This grant helped us pay for staff time, gas, husbandry (food, basic care), vaccines, medicine, and spay/neuter surgeries for the dogs and cats rescued from the biggest wildfires in California’s history (the Caldor and Dixie fires). We waived adoption fees to clear space in our adoption center for fire-impacted pets, and we waived fees for many of the adoptable fire-impacted pets so we could get them adopted as quickly as possible.

(Please note that we took in established shelter populations to avoid removing displaced pets from potential reunification with their pet parents. Any displaced pets held by us were not made available for adoption, but were eventually returned to their origin shelters, once it was safe, for reunification.)

It also enabled us to provide urgent hospitalization for one of the fire-displaced dogs, which saved her life! The cost of her care was $3,500. We also collected all sizes of pet crates and gave them, for free, to anyone who was evacuating. Our staff also assisted in building the pet-evacuation temporary shelter in the Reno Convention Area.

How many pets did this grant help?

Approximately 40 fire-impacted pets were directly helped during July, August, and September 2021. Additionally, we were also able to house five active-case dogs and two cats for the Plumas County Sheriff’s Department for six months and provide them with all the daily care, enrichment, and medical care they required until the end of the legal proceedings.

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

All of the young puppies evacuated from the Dixie Fire and from High Sierra Animal Rescue have gone to loving homes! Mint and his siblings are all going to be so happy with their families. We are so happy we could offer these babies safety and find them loving homes!