From our origins as a horse rescue to our focus on ending breed-specific legislation over the past few years, our goal has always been to uplift the bond between people and pets. Throughout the past 20 years, how we achieve that goal has changed based on what society needs at a particular moment in time. We’re always looking for new ways to help people and pets, and we’re excited to be rolling out new initiatives next year.
In 2023, here’s what we’re planning to do:
Old Friends Program
We’ll be taking in senior shelter dogs and letting them hang out with us in a home-like environment. We hope they’ll be adopted into new families, but we’re also happy to have them stay with us throughout their golden years.
Community Outreach
We believe in modeling the idea that change starts in your own backyard. Like most communities, Dutchess County, NY is experiencing economic instability. So, we’re expanding our local outreach to meet the needs of pet owners in our community. We’ll be donating more pet food, providing more hands-on support with dogs in need, partnering with local animal shelters and covering the costs of veterinary services for pets in our area.
Shelter Support
While we work hands-on in our community, we’ll be providing virtual resources and training for shelter workers across the country. Our library of resources on things like enrichment and inclusive adoption policies are available on our website. You can also watch a webinar about the impact breed labels have on your community and/or book a free virtual live training session.
Sanctuary Farm Animals
We’ve always had more than dogs at the farm. In 2023, you’ll be hearing more about our cows and horses on social media.
National Canine Research Council
If you’ve been a supporter of ours for any length of time, you know that promoting evidence-based canine-related policies has been a huge part of our work. You may be wondering why you don’t see that here. We’ve decided to move all of our science-backed efforts, like ending breed restrictions, to our subsidiary organization, National Canine Research Council. This move allows AFF to focus solely on directly helping people, pets, and their communities. NCRC will be undergoing some changes in the coming weeks as well. For now, you can find all of AFF’s old breed restriction related resources on NCRC’s site.
