In March 2020, Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society received a $7,500 lifesaving investment grant from the Petco Foundation to support the shelter’s Highway to Home program. Since 1999, the foundation has invested more than $260 million in lifesaving animal welfare work to help every animal live its best life, and GMHS is grateful to be counted among the foundation’s more than 4,000 animal welfare partners.
This grant award helped offset the costs associated with veterinary care and transportation of homeless pets from GMHS to adoption-guaranteed partners located throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, with a high demand for adoptable pets and a low homeless pet population.
Highway to Home is an integral part of GMHS’ lifesaving roadmap. Since 2015, the program has transferred more than 2,700 homeless pets to adoption-guaranteed partners. Between March and June 2020, the grant and support of GMHS donors, volunteers and staff made possible lifesaving transports for 112 pets—all during a few short months and despite the challenges presented byary care and transportation, the grant helped connect homeless pets with shelters and adopters in communities who are just as willing as those served by GMHS to provide them with the loving, forever homes they deserve.
The transfer of pets through Highway to Home frees space for GMHS to care for even more homeless pets and enables more difficult to place pets to find forever homes. In fact, Highway to Home is one of the reasons GMHS neither euthanizes for space nor length of stay. The program largely contributes to GMHS’s 97 percent live-release rate and Gloucester County Animal Control Shelter’s 98 percent live-release rate.
No small amount of planning and effort goes into Highway to Home transports, and its success is a team effort. GMHS staff members, including those at the Save Spay & Neuter Clinic, carefully select pets for transport and ensure all are fully vetted, tested negative for heartworm, altered and medically cleared for the trip. GMHS volunteers play a major role in the program’s success as they often assist with trip preparation and almost exclusively drive the pets from GMHS to their destination shelters.
GMHS’s relationships with Highway to Home adoption partners are incredibly meaningful. In addition to meeting the adoption needs of specific communities, the program’s transports are also tailored to meet individual needs of homeless pets, like Sampson. He entered GMHS’s care a nearly 10-year-old dog who was quickly losing his sight. Because senior dogs tend to be overlooked in favor of younger ones, their shelter length-of-stay is often longer. Sampson’s vision loss presented an additional adoption challenge. After seven months at GMHS, Sampson was transferred to a shelter specializing in pets with special needs and uniquely positioned to help him make a lasting heart connection.
Expanding Highway to Home is essential to increasing GMHS’s live-release rate and saving the lives of more homeless pets. With the support and engagement of our community, both goals will be achieved and the lives of pets just like Sampson will be transformed. If you would like to fund a lifesaving transport, visit gmhumensociety.org/donate or call 804-693-5520 ext. 307. If you would like to pilot a Highway to Home transport, contact GMHS Volunteer Manager Waynette Petty at volunteer@gmhumanesociety.org.