Miniature Schnauzer Legacy Saves Lives

In 1999, Cheryl and Dave Duffield, the founder of PeopleSoft, established a $200 million dollar family foundation to end the killing of healthy (adoptable) dogs and cats in shelters and help America become a no-kill nation. This foundation is called Maddie’s Fund, and it is named in memory of their beloved Miniature Schnauzer, Maddie.

This past weekend, I attended the national Conference on Homeless Animal Management & Policy (CHAMP) and Maddie’s Pet Rally in Reno. Maddie’s Pet Rally was held to celebrate the accomplishments of Maddie’s Fund, which to date has funded and pledged a total of $57 million dollars to projects around the nation. Maddie’s Fund currently has projects in California, Utah, Alabama, Florida and Wisconsin with projects under development in New York, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Nevada, Texas, and Arizona.

I sat on the panel for the Funded Projects Roundtable, and with me on that panel were the leaders of State Veterinary Medical Associations from Alabama, Utah, Texas and California. Veterinarians are a large national group of caring professionals who can monumentally affect the speed with which the goal of a no-kill nation can be achieved. The involvement of the veterinary community on this scale was an incredible accomplishment for Rich Avanzino and his team at Maddie’s Fund, and I was in awe.

As I looked around at my co-participants, I realized that the veterinary community may have the most powerful voice of any group for the animals. Veterinarians are the scientists and healers, they perform the surgeries to sterilize the animals to prevent the unwanted births of puppies and kittens, and they can recommend that their clients got to shelters when seeking a companion animal.

Pets In Need is not a fund recipient of Maddie’s Fund. We are, however, one of the five core shelters selected to work with the UC Davis Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program. This program is the first of its kind by a veterinary college, and it is designed to “advance shelter medicine as a veterinary specialty.”

Maddie’s Fund California projects include the UC Davis Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program and Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project in Lodi—a small, rural town of 53,000 people that is surpassing all goals on its way to becoming a no-kill city. Maddie’s Fund has just completed several state-wide spay/neuter programs administered by the California Veterinary Medical Association. The programs brought on board over eleven hundred private-practice veterinarians who performed 224,000 surgeries in less than three years.

The veterinary community has puzzled for years with how they can become more involved with the humane movement, and their collaboration with Maddie’s Fund is making this possible. If you would like to learn more about the good news Maddie’s Fund brings for our best friends, visit their web site at www.maddiesfund.org.

 
Founded in 1965, Pets In Need receives no federal, state or local government support.

Published in the San Mateo County Times, August 31, 2002