Founding Angel Appreciation Event

Last month we held an appreciation event to honor and update our Founding Angel Donors. These donors saw the value of MNSNAP, believed in our mission and made contributions before we were even up and running.

Event photos are featured in Mpls/St.Paul Magazine and can be viewed online by clicking here.

Because of their commitment to ending pet overpopulation in our state we were able to order our mobile surgical suite, equipment and supplies. The generous donations made by these animal advocates have made it possible for MNSNAP to start providing low-cost spay and neuter for the over 4000 pets that have registered with us for sterilization surgery.

We honored Pet Haven, Inc. of Minnesota and Second Chance Animal Rescue with our first Angel Awards. These rescues both went above and beyond to support spay and neuter in Minnesota and provided financial contributions to help us with our mission.

Special thanks to the Gage Family who hosted the event at the Curtis L. Carlson Family Home on Lake Minnetonka. It was a wonderful event and their hospitality was, as usual, spectacular!

Evolution of a Rescue: Pet Haven, Inc. of Minnesota

Most animal lovers in Minnesota have heard of one the oldest and most well respected animal rescues around; Pet Haven, Inc. of Minnesota. Did you know that Pet Haven has been saving animals since 1952? 

Much has changed in animal welfare over the years. As things have changed, Pet Haven, Inc. of Minnesota has evolved. Pet Haven has realized that spaying and neutering, beyond spaying and neutering the animals in the care of their rescue, is essential to ending the pet overpopulation problem in Minnesota.

According to Pet Haven's former President, Marilou Chanrasmi, "In recent years we have chosen to expand our reach. We have switched to wide-angle lenses, and put into place a strategy that considers many angles and a larger landscape. We continue to focus our efforts on rescuing and re-homing. In addition, we are committed to expanding our spay/neuter initiatives, education/outreach efforts and advocating on behalf of companion animals."

Part of Pet Haven, Inc. of Minnesota's evolution has included adding the Pet Haven, Inc.’s Spay/Neuter Initiative (SNI) to its programs.

From Pet Haven's Website:

Pet Haven received a very generous donation earmarked to be used to help reduce the overpopulation of companion animals and to help families keep their pets by providing low-cost spay and neuter services. The donor's hope was that the funds be used to reach animals not already being served by Pet Haven's adoption program. Pet Haven used this donation as the "seed money" to start its own low-cost spay/neuter outreach and to offer grants to humane and rescue groups to assist with their spay/neuter efforts.

Since May 2010, Pet Haven, Inc.’s Spay Neuter Initiative (SNI) has sponsored 7 spay/neuter days through MNSNAP at Prairie’s Edge Humane Society, Red Lake Rosie’s Rescue, Northwoods Humane Society, Pennington County Humane Society, Beltrami Humane Society, and BENCHS (Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society), resulting in the spay or neuter of over 175 cats and dogs. They will be sponsoring five additional projects. One future event includes the spay/neuter of over 100 cats at a trailer park in Rice County.

Read more and view photos from the event earlier this year.

Spay Neuter Initiative (SNI) received funding from Chuck and Don’s Pawprints campaign by providing grants to MN humane societies, shelters and rescue groups for community outreach for spay and neuter through MNSNAP. Pet Haven’s SNI program, in partnership with MNSNAP, has already sponsored $10,000 in spay and neuter surgeries during projects that were completed earlier this year and will be sponsoring another $10,000 worth of surgeries during future scheduled projects.

Such dedication deserves to be recognized. MNSNAP not only the appreciates the contributions that they have made to support our mission but the outstanding efforts they are making to strengthen the Minnesota animal welfare community as a whole. Kudos to Pet Haven for the many years of compassionate care they have provided to the critters in their program and their commitment to a brighter future for all companion animals in Minnesota.