Berkeley Humane Society awarded $10K PEDIGREE Foundation grant
The PEDIGREE Foundation awarded one of its 2017 Program Development Grants to the Berkeley Humane Society to fund medical care for dogs that are up for adoption from municipal shelters in the Bay Area.
Berkeley Humane was awarded a $10,000 grant, according to the PEDIGREE Foundation website. Jeffrey Zerwekh, Berkeley Humane’s executive director, said the entire grant will go toward purchasing medical equipment necessary for the surgical procedures that Berkeley Humane provides in its hospital.
Zerwekh said Berkeley Humane was “excited” and “incredibly grateful” to be a recipient of the grant, adding that almost all of Berkeley Humane’s funding comes from public donations and grants.
“It’s very expensive to provide medical care for animals, as most people know,” Zerwekh said. “And so to have the grant, that will allow us to get the tools we need to support … the efforts of our volunteers and staff — it means a lot to us.”
Berkeley Humane primarily goes into different municipal shelters in the East Bay area to take in dogs in need of medical care that the shelters cannot afford. Then, the organization provides treatment in its hospital and finds them caring homes, Zerwekh said.
According to Zerwekh, Berkeley Humane specifically requested funding for surgery equipment, as it needs new surgery tools so it can continue to operate on animals in need of intensive medical intervention.
“The equipment that you use in the surgery — forceps, scalpels, other things — can break over time,” Zerwekh said. “And so, this grant was to help us replace old instruments that we can no longer repair and buy new ones so we can continue our lifesaving work.”
Out of 168 applicants, Berkeley Humane was one of 20 recipients of the PEDIGREE Foundation’s Program Development Grants, according to PEDIGREE Foundation Executive Director Debra Fair.
Fair and Zerwekh both noted how rigorous and thorough the application and selection processes were.
“There’s a lot of work that the grant applicants have to do to apply,” Fair said. “(Applicants) have to … provide a narrative, what (they are) going to use the funding for. … How will it increase dog adoption, how will you measure success and how can you sustain the program after our grant period?”
According to Fair, with shelters such as Berkeley Humane, the auditor tours the premises and looks for cleanliness, how it stores veterinary materials and how it stores food, among other things. Also, the auditor ensures that the animals in care are healthy and happy.
After reviewing the shelter, the auditor sends back their recommendations, scores and comments to the final board. The final board then awards grants to organizations based on this information, Fair said.
Fair stated that Berkeley Humane had a “fabulous” and “very unique” program that scored very highly because the society was clear and concise with its intentions regarding funding.
“We want to make sure that their organization is not only financially healthy, but also has that great community support … so that (they) can continue to have sustainable initiatives and programs,” Fair said. “Because for us, it’s all about, in the end, getting more dogs adopted.”
Contact Mani Sandhu at msandhu@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter at @ManiSandhu24.
