PHOENIX — In honor of Betty White, the long-time actress, and animal-rights advocate, there is a push to get people to donate $5 to an animal shelter on January 17, which would have been the actress's 100th birthday.
The movement is called the #bettywhitechallenge and it's trending on most popular social media sites.
As a long-time advocate for animal welfare causes, White worked with the Los Angeles Zoo, African Wildlife Foundation, and the Morris Animal Foundation.
Animal shelters in Arizona need donations now more than ever. With the rising costs of transportation and materials and many still being affected by the pandemic, the need is great.
“So, we take in about 15,000 pets a year,” Said Bretta Nelson, who works for the Arizona Humane Society."
AHS responds to animal emergencies across the Valley. Trained emergency animal medical technicians respond day to night, to emergency calls.
“And it can be anything from pets that have been hit by cars, stuck in canals, or it's a lot of cruelty cases with our law enforcement partners,” Nelson explained. “It definitely takes a special soul to be able to respond to those calls because they see such heartbreaking things.”
For each call AHS responds to, they estimate that they spend $1,300 to care for each animal.
AHS isn’t the only entity treating emergency pet rescues. Animal Benefits Club of Arizona works closely with Maricopa Country Animal Care and Control to provide long-term medical care for animals that are sick or hurt. The non-profit is much smaller than AHS but provides an equally important function in the care of animals.
“You've got a perfect storm; you have a labor shortage, inflation, donations that are down, and a very sky-high minimum wage,” explained Andra Jeffress, Executive Director for Animals Benefit Club of Arizona. “It's been a very, very challenging couple of years.”
A.B.C. runs on a small staff, with no paid executives. That money all goes into the care of the animals that they rescue and provide treatment for, according to Jeffress.
“We're running up on about 80 dogs and 40 cats right now,” said Jeffress. “So, many of them have been brought in off the street. And the other issue is they would have continued to breed out there because they're never fixed. So, it's very, very important work.”
Both large and small shelters are feeling the pinch of the pandemic, and both groups can agree on one thing:
“To be able to honor her [Betty White] in a way that I think she would have been very, very proud of, certainly shows how people can come together especially in the love of animals.”
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