LOS ANGELES (AP) — A large number of small online donations can turn pet projects into big lifesavers for animals.
LoveAnimals.org,
a year-old crowdfunding site, is believed to be the first devoted to
aiding just pets and wildlife. It has tapped into the power of online
contributions, where people can give what they can, whether $5 or $500,
to help a more costly project come to fruition. Through Love Animals,
donors can help nonprofit sanctuaries, pet rescues, animal hospitals,
zoos and aquariums provide care and extra amenities for dogs, elephants,
otters, horses and everything in between.
Animal
efforts appear on other sites using the popular crowdfunding technique,
such as Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Gofundme, but they are mixed with
non-animal causes and for-profit companies. In July, the ResQwalk mobile
app launched through Indiegogo, allowing people to raise money for
animal rescues and shelters in the U.S. and Canada every time they go
walking.
"It's easier to get
many people to give small sums of money than to get just a few people to
give you large amounts of money," said Sarah Timms, a Colorado attorney
who founded LoveAnimals.org.
The site gave a new chance at life
to a kitten named Roger, who was thrown from a moving car in Colorado in
early September and required a leg amputation.
Longmont
Humane Society in Colorado, which took in the 1-pound kitten, doubled
its goal of $650 in less than 24 hours of online fundraising. Twenty
people donated between $5 and $375 through Love Animals to help pay for
medical bills and rehab for Roger.
Love Animals, which will only post animal campaigns that come through a nonprofit organization, recently got a boost from Ellen DeGeneres' natural pet food company. Halo, Purely for Pets became the site's first founding corporate sponsor, a five-year commitment that came with cash infusion.
Whether the cause is a companion animal like Roger, who was adopted on Oct. 3, or saving chimpanzees, farm animals or dolphins, it appears on LoveAnimals.org, Timms said.
Carole
Baskin, the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, which she founded in Tampa, Florida,
22 years ago, used Love Animals to raise money for a fence extension
that would foil a female tiger's escape attempts and allow her to join
her siblings in the sanctuary's new outdoor enclosure.
Big Cat
Rescue built a 2.5-acre open-air enclosure last year with money raised
the old-fashioned way. It is surrounded by a 15-foot fence topped with a
5-foot overhang so the 150-pound cats can safely roam, run and play in
an area with a swimming hole and unobstructed views of the sky.
But
Amanda, who previously had tried to escape, wasn't allowed in the area
until Baskin's father invented a short, drape-like addition for the
overhang to keep her in the enclosure.
The
rescue's $20,000 campaign for the addition last November garnered
donations ranging from $2 to $1,000, allowing Amanda to stretch her
legs, watch over her brothers and get in good roar.
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