Pet Lifesaving Training Academy Receives $4 Million Grant From Maddie’s Fund

Austin leading the way with academy hosted at Austin Pets Alive! and Austin Animal Services to significantly increase lifesaving across the county.

AUSTIN, TX – Austin Pets Alive! has received a three-year, $4 million grant from Maddie’s Fund® to support the Maddie’s® Lifesaving Academy at Austin Pets Alive and City of Austin Animal Services Office (which operates the Austin Animal Center) in Austin, Texas.

As the nation’s largest No Kill city and premier resource for lifesaving programs, Austin will be home to the Maddie’s Lifesaving Academy – an unprecedented educational program to help save exponentially more homeless pets across the country.

“The City of Austin is a model city for lifesaving and is important to both our movement and the country,” said Lisa Ward, Co-Director of Education at Maddie’s Fund. “The ripple effect of lifesaving education spreading to communities across the U.S. will be exponential. This is just one more step in our goal to help ensure all of the dogs and cats in America find a loving home or habitat.”

The grant will provide the opportunity for nearly 2,000 animal welfare workers from around the U.S. to learn on-site from APA! and ASO leaders through 18 apprenticeships and 3 master classes. The goal is for the apprentices to take what they’ve learned at the training academy and bring it back to their own communities, implementing programs that will help save pets most at-risk of euthanasia in their regions. The apprenticeships and master classes will cover topics ranging from medical and behavioral needs of animals, to foster care, fundraising, and more.

“Maddie’s® Lifesaving Academy is critically important to saving animals across the country,” said Dr. Ellen Jefferson, Executive Director at Austin Pets Alive!. “While we save around 7,500 pets in our own shelter annually, training others to do true lifesaving work in their own communities has a much larger and lasting impact. And our leaders love sharing what we know to help increase lifesaving across the country.”

Separate from typical operations at APA! and ASO, the three-year grant will fund everything from Academy staff positions, travel stipends for students, supplies and infrastructure for Maddie’s® Lifesaving Academy.

“We are so grateful for this opportunity to help eliminate the needless killing of pets across America, thanks to Maddie,” said Lee Ann Shenefiel, Interim Chief Animal Services Officer at the City of Austin Animal Services Office. “We know that the impact of Maddie’s® Lifesaving Academy will be far-reaching, and our expert staff is excited to help other communities in their journey to No Kill.”