HEART Animal Rescue & Adoption Team News

SAVING ANIMALS LIVES...THE HEART OF WHAT WE DO

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News

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IN LOVING MEMORY OF BILL HANNA, SR.
A FRIEND OF THE ANIMALS AND VERY SPECIAL FRIEND OF HEART
Bill Hanna Sr. (also known as "The Boss" by his family and many friends) passed away on September 19, 2008. Bill was the owner of Rodney's Restaurant & Lounge in Hamburg. Bill’s kindness and generosity in helping animals made him even more special to all who had the chance to know him. He will be greatly missed by his friends and family and the animals he dearly loved.

In memory of “Big Boss” his family and friends gathered together on September 21, 2009 for the "Big Boss Memorial Golf Tournament” that was held at the Brierwood Country Club in Hamburg. To honor "The Boss", a Chinese Auction and T-Shirt sale was held at the event to raise money for a charity that was very close to Bill's heart - HEART Animal Rescue and Adoption Team. On October 16, 2009 Bill Hanna Jr. and his wife Robin (who organized the event) presented HEART with a generous donation in "The Boss's" memory.

HEART is committed to saving the lives of animals in need and we are extremely honored and grateful to you “Big Boss”, your family and friends for acknowledging the importance of animal rescue and the need for donations. Bill will be remembered in every animal’s life that is saved and this wonderful donation means we're one step closer to creating a world where there are no more homeless pets.

MADDIE'S FUND TO AWARD $5,000,000
TO ERIE COUNTY, NY COALITION
HEART Animal Rescue & Adoption Team
is committed to saving the lives of innocent animals through the rescue of healthy and adoptable shelter animals. We are privileged to be a Maddie's Fund Project Partner.
Together we are making a difference!
For more information please visit maddieseriecounty.org

Erie County to Receive Award Over Five Years
to Save All Healthy and Treatable Cats and Dogs Maddie’s Fund The Pet Rescue Foundation has announced that it will award a grant to support a multi-year community project targeted at guaranteeing a home for every healthy and treatable dog and cat abandoned in Erie County. An additional grant will be dedicated to the sterilization of feral cats and of cats owned by income-qualified residents. As goals are achieved, Maddie’s Fund will provide approximately $5 million over the course of five years to help Erie County project partners continue fulfilling these objectives for the cats and dogs of the community.

Maddie was a beloved Miniature Schnauzer whose unconditional love, devotion, loyalty and spirit inspired her guardians to promise Maddie to help other animals find happy homes. Dave and Cheryl Duffield are fulfilling their promise to Maddie. In honor of their cherished companion they started a charitable foundation, Maddie's Fund. Maddie's Fund devotes its resources to help build a no-kill nation. Thanks to Maddie's Fund shelter pets in desperate need of love and care are afforded new opportunities to find compassionate homes in which they, too, may share in the joy, love and companionship that Maddie shared with Dave and Cheryl.

Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project Partners include HEART Animal Rescue & Adoption Team, Buffalo Humane, City of Buffalo Animal Shelter, Second Chance Sheltering Network, Ten Lives Club, and lead agency the SPCA Serving Erie County. Maddie’s Spay/Neuter Project Partners include Operation PETS: The Spay/Neuter Clinic of WNY Inc. and ten local veterinary clinics (Akron Animal Hospital, All Creatures Animal Hospital, Aurora Park Animal Clinic, Boston Valley Animal Hospital, Cheektowaga Veterinary Hospital, City Creatures Animal Hospital, East Aurora Veterinary Hospital, Ellicott Small Animal Hospital, Lancaster Small Animal Hospital, and Transit Valley Animal Hospital).

Over the course of the first year, project goals include increasing the number of dogs and cats adopted from participating organizations, maintaining a total of zero healthy dogs and cats euthanized by participating organizations, and decreasing the number of treatable dogs and cats euthanized in Erie County. Sterilization assistance will be provided to income-qualified pet owners and to feral cats.

Per SPCA Executive Director Barbara Carr, “Our project partners have pledged that the customary ten-year goal of the project, that of euthanizing no healthy nor treatable dog or cat, will be reached in five years. There is no doubt that this goal will be reached, earning our community this generous grant. The Maddie’s Pet Rescue Project community grant is revolutionary. It is a testimony to the tremendous work our community and our project partners have already completed, and will advance a testimony to just how much this community loves its animals.”

To read more about the Maddie’s Fund award to Erie County visit SPCA Serving Erie County.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH MADDIE'S MOVIE
Visit the Maddie's Fund Pet Foundation at www.maddiesfund.org.



EDIE OFFHAUS

ANIMALS IN OUR HEARTS
When we first started in 1984 we were known as the Hamburg-Eden Animal Rescue Team (HEART). Our name was changed in the early 21st century because we found it to be rather restrictive due to the logistical implications of the name. We formally changed our name to HEART Animal Rescue & Adoption Team Inc.

HEART had a handful of members back in 1987 when I joined. The cat adoption fee back then was only $10.00. Volunteers met in my kitchen over coffee or we went to other volunteer houses to make handmade crafts to sell in order make money to pay for veterinary bills.

HEART’s rescue team went everywhere to help animals. We trapped animals in farmlands and in the streets of Buffalo. We rescued animals under buildings and in abandoned houses and factories. Our main objective was the same as it is now – to help each animal enjoy a healthy safe quality of life, regardless of personality or handicap. HEART believes in the rights of all animals, both companion animals and feral cats. Ferals have the right to survive with a little intervention from people. A Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return program is essential to the Western New York region as well as across the United States.

In 1990 we started a Humane Education program for schools. Moms and kittens were taken to the classroom so children had firsthand knowledge of the care for these animals. This program soon blossomed to five elementary schools, with several classrooms in each school. After several years and several schools later, we were asked to take our animals to hospitals, nursing homes and adult day care centers. We did just that! All the while most of us fostered and helped to run HEART.

HEART has had so many accomplishments over the past 25 years.

Realizing the need to have every animal spayed or neutered HEART started the Animal Welfare Program to help the city of Buffalo animals. This program helped to sterilize several hundred animals from the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter.

Our Dog Department helped to rescue and place hundreds of dogs.

Post-A-Pooch-Plus.com was formed by one of the originators of HEART to help re-home personal pets that could not stay in their original homes. Other HEART volunteers went on to start other rescue organizations, specializing in cats and kittens.

HEART volunteers formed Feral Cat FOCUS Inc. and Operation PETS: The Spay/Neuter Clinic of WNY Inc. To date, both organizations have spayed or neutered thousands of animals in Western New York. These volunteers are still very active in HEART.

HEART has saved the lives of thousands of animals!!