Animal Samaritans Receives $750k Naming Gift

Animal Samaritans has received a donation to its new Pet Adoption & Humane Education Center building project from the Richard Brooke Foundation in the amount of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($750,000). Animal Samaritans will name the future Center’s covered Dog Park & Training Yard in their honor. With this generous donation, Animal Samaritans now has more than four million ($4,000,000) dollars in restricted funds, pledged donations, and property assets allocated for their project. The new Animal Samaritans’ Pet Adoption & Humane Education Center will be built on two and half acres of land on Pet Land Place, which is part of the greater Thousand Palms Animal Campus. Specifically, the building site is adjacent to Animal Samaritans’ Thousand Palms Veterinary Clinic, and has already been graded and outfitted for water and electrical connection to existing infrastructure. With the recent addition of Mr. Jarred Ellis, Animal Samaritans’ new Director of Development & Philanthropy, the organization is positioned to double their efforts to make their dream of building a new and improved space for at-risk, adoptable homeless pets a reality. Animal Samaritans was founded on the principle of no-kill animal sheltering and pet adoptions, and free Humane Education for area schools. Founded in 1978, Animal Samaritans began providing free Humane Education to Desert school children as early as 1980. Today, they continue to provide free humane education to the pet owners of tomorrow, which includes grade specific lesson plans for elementary and middle school students, as well as annual summer Critter Camps to local children ages 7 through 12. In addition to providing a new living space for up to 30 homeless cats and 30 homeless dogs, including large dogs, the new Pet Adoption Center will include a multipurpose space for Humane Education. Children will visit Animal Samaritans’ new campus and learn: How to be responsible pet owners; what it takes to be a veterinarian, vet technician, or shelter manager; how recognize and report animal cruelty; how to avoid bullying animals; and the importance of pet spay and neuter, for example.
“The Richard Brooke Foundation is extremely reputable and generous,” notes Animal Samaritans’ CEO Tom Snyder. “For the past several years their support has been unwavering. This large gift shows their alignment with our vision and their trust in us to achieve it.”
Animal Samaritans SPCA., a 501 (c) non-profit organization, started in 1978 and brought the first free Humane Education program and first low-cost spay & neuter clinic to the Desert. As the Coachella Valley’s most comprehensive animal welfare organization, they strive to one day eliminate the needless suffering and abuse of homeless and unwanted animals. Programs and services in place to save the lives of healthy and treatable animals include prevention through humane education, affordable spay and neuter, vaccinations, and other veterinary care, animal sheltering, animal rescue, pet fostering and pet adoptions. In addition, volunteers from their Animal Companion Therapy program visit special needs classrooms, nursing homes, and local hospitals. More information is available by calling 760.601.3755 and by visiting www.animalsamaritans.org