PROTECTING ANIMALS WITHIN SAN ANTONIO

To educate: our community on the importance of spaying, neutering and adoption. \r\nTo promote: animal welfare education by teaching children early on to respect our pets by incorporating responsible pet ownership, \r\n pet loyalty, and pet love. \r\nTo provide free or low cost spay/neuter services. \r\nTo create: pawsitive, happy endings for the homeless pet population of San Antonio through animal rescue. We want to decrease \r\n shelter intake and save lives!

Networking- We try and assist as many rescues in the community as we can either through donations, volunteering or sharing their animals in need.\r\n\r\nPartnerships-We have teamed up with the San Antonio Humane Society to hold two PAWS Presents: Camp Humane every year. This is one of ways to educate the community.\r\n\r\nBe Accessible-We try to attend events, like the Cultural Arts Fair, so that way we have a presence in the community. \r\n\r\nSponsorships- Currently we are working with Equisite Properties to build an ongoing marketing program to help animal lovers support P.A.W.S

Studies show that companion animals have a beneficial impact on people's health. Enabling an underserved segment of our population easier access to spay/neuter services or information on vaccination clinics will enable their pets to live longer, healthier lives. This will have a positive effect on the owner's own well being. \r\n\r\nEveryone in San Antonio is affected by animal overpopulation. Millions of tax dollars are spent annually to care for or euthanize unwanted pets. Not only are we spending money, but the health and safety of our communities is another concern. The greater the population of unwanted animals, the greater the incidence of rabies, dog bites, cat scratches, traffic accidents, and animal abuse. The education we can provide targets the children. We may not be able to change adult attitudes right away, but we can plant seeds of change for the future. Once the community's attitude changes and the amount of strays decrease, neighborhoods will be safer places to walk.\r\n\r\nProtecting Animals Within San Antonio is unique because we began as a simple high school extracurricular club and have expanded to become a successful non profit organization. But what really sets us apart is that we combine animal welfare education with animal rescue. We know that rescuing and rehoming strays is just putting a bandaid on the problem. The solution has to be a mindset change and must start with the children.To that extent, the San Antonio Humane Society provides similar services in that they rescue and rehome animals and they have an education coordinator that puts on educational day camps. But where PAWS stands above is that we can leverage high school students to create the curriculum and teach it to the younger kids on a consistent, continuing education basis versus a one day camp. Engaging in cooperative learning/peer education versus having adults come in to teach the kids enhances the value of student-student interaction and results in various advantageous learning outcomes.

2017 \r\nTo date- 39 animals\r\n(27 dogs, 18 cats)\r\n-3 transported dogs\r\n((I think I'm missing some animals though)\r\n* over 383 free spay/neuter surgeries \r\nPAWS Camp: 55 students\r\n\r\n2016\r\n129 animals\r\n(73 dogs, 56 cats (may not be that high)\r\n-42 dogs transported \r\n* over 340 free spay/neuter surgeries\r\n\r\n2015\r\nIntake: 198 dogs and cats\r\nPAWS Camp 60 students\r\n\r\n2014\r\nIntake: 171 dogs and cats\r\nPAWS camp 60 students\r\n\r\n2013\r\nIntake: 70 dogs and cats\r\nPAWS Camp 75 students\r\n\r\n2012\r\nIntake: 65 dogs and cats\r\nPAWS Camp-75 students\r\n\r\n2011 \r\nP.A.W.S. Club wins $20,000 Silver and Black Gives Back Team UP Challenge Winner\r\n* Over 162 free spay/neuter surgeries\r\nNominated for the United Way Mayor's Award for Youth