Introducing Pet Vet Help: Raising Funds to Help Pets Afford Vets

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Oreo and Ginger approve this message!

For many of us, through no fault of our own, veterinary care has become increasingly unaffordable. The rate of inflation in veterinary costs is similar to that in human medical costs whilst wages have stagnated for over a decade. But we love our pets and want the best for them, including modern medical equipment and clinical expertise. So it comes as no surprise that when we hold fundraisers, they are often to help with veterinary bills. The current charities to help are underfunded and have waiting lists.

So we thought, why not create a new nonprofit to help pay vet bills for people who cannot afford them? Then contributions to this worthy cause will be tax deductible. After all, we've been discussing how we can't expect the government to do things for us. And we know pet welfare is going to be very low on their list. Since I lost a part-time job recently, I have made setting this up my work, in collaboration with some fellow animal lovers who are volunteering behind the scenes.

Our articles of incorporation have now been filed and accepted by the state of Kentucky. We are in business!

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Success!

So what we need right now is to raise funds, about $1500-2000, to pay my expenses and startup expenses so that I can work on Pet Vet Help fulltime for the first month. I recently lost one of my part-time jobs due to a change in ownership, so have both the time to devote to this project and the need for income. We need to get filed with the IRS, which will be the priority so that we can receive 501(c)(3) status as soon as possible. Once our financials are complete, we need to design a website and obtain target lists. We need to write compelling prose for the site and mailings and emails and press releases and social media and so on. We plan to contact thousands of veterinarians, pet supply companies, and animal lovers. There is a variety of nonprofit-supporting software that I will investigate to see if it will allow tracking of supporters and finances, as well as communication simultaneously across a variety of social media, allowing me to work on a large scale with a relatively small investment of labor. If not, we’ll design an efficient system. Anything collected in excess of expenses will immediately be available for pets in need of help with their veterinary bills.

It is my hope to work myself right out of this fulltime job, so that once everything is in place I can do this part-time on-call as a consultant, and more of the funds raised will be available for pets in need. It will depend on how much communication is needed to raise adequate funds for all those we want to help. The board is volunteering their time, so I have taken responsibility for the bulk of the workload.

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Things are looking up for pets!

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Yes, things are looking way up for pets!

The excellent news is, donations are tax deductible from the date of filing, so that donations today for setup count as charitable donations to the organization. As you can see above, our date of filing was yesterday. Assuming that we receive future approval from the IRS as a 501(c)(3), donations today will be tax deductible. We have a volunteer lawyer on board to help with our verbiage, and contacts at the city and state government and the IRS, so there is every reason to think that we will obtain approval.

We hope you are as excited as we are to be able to form an organization that will be effective in helping to ease the cost of veterinary care while providing donors with a tax deduction! We greatly appreciate you donating today so that we can keep our own pets in food and meds while rolling out quickly; every day, more pets face high bills for veterinary care.

If you are able and wanting to donate, please donate via PayPal to my business partnership email address. There is no other fundraising going into that account right now, so it will effectively keep Pet Vet funds separate. Setting up a dedicated account is, of course, on the to-do list. For now, donations can be made to:

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Instructions for PayPal, since many have asked: To donate via PayPal, if you already have an account, please go to https://www.paypal.com/home and log in, proceed to “My PayPal" and hit “Send & Request". You should see a screen that looks like this:

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Please choose the icon on the left, “Send money to friends and family”. That way neither you nor we will be charged for the money transfer when you use your linked bank account.

If you do not have a PayPal account and do not want to log in, then go to the above PayPal Home page and hit “Send”. You will then see this drop down from the top:

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Please type in the above email address and the amount you wish to donate, and hit “Continue”. The top of your screen will change to this:

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Again, please select the option on the left, “This is to friends or family,” so that no one is charged for the money transfer, and then proceed. I believe there is a small charge if you use a credit card, but none if you use a bank account.

And finally, if you would like to be notified of future fundraisers for Pet Vet Help, please let me know to put you on a group Caucmail list, and I will use that list to keep everyone informed who is interested.

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Hooray! More pets will get help!

Please consider this an open thread. Discuss pets, the state of the economy, whatever issues. We thank you and all pets thank you!

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Comments

jwa13's picture

will be doing something shortly on PayPal. Can your 501(c)(3) expand into other States?

All of my best friends over the years (feline/canine - non-discriminatory) have been "rescued" -- would be good to know that they had been in a waiting room, rather than on Death's doorstep (and they know it too) --

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When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.

elenacarlena's picture

You just register in the state you reside. Nonprofits are set up for the general good, though; anyone in the country can donate and receive the tax deduction once the IRS approves, and anyone can apply for help.

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Damnit Janet's picture

great action!

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

elenacarlena's picture

complete the work getting established, then I think we'll go far.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

Can the funds be deployed to any animal in any state or just Kentucky? If it's just Kentucky that's fine, as I'm sure there are a lot of Kentucky animals needing care, but I just wondered.

One of my more horrendous experiences not that long ago was going to an emergency vet on the weekend with my cat. They did not want to address the immediate situation, they wanted to drive up the bill as much as they possibly could. They wanted to test everything and scan everything and xray everything. Their initial estimate was thousands of dollars. I took the itemized estimate from the salesperson dressed in surgical scrubs (I'm convinced that was the situation, that person was no more a vet or a vet tech than I am) and I checked off the items that I would authorized to be done which did address the immediate situation and which STILL went over 1K when the monitoring and boarding charges were added. I heard people in the rooms around us literally crying when they were presented with their estimates. The whole deplorable situation struck me as being quite the scam. We were fortunate that we could afford the extortive treatment (it was all taken care of with a course of anti-biotics) but it was a bizarre and eye-opening experience.

Strangely enough, a few years previous, we had a wonderful experience with the same emergency clinic and a different cat. They quickly diagnosed the situation, gave the right treatment, sent him home with us and stayed in contact with our regular vet during the next week. And it was expensive, but affordable and reasonable.

What we discovered was that the good local emergency vet practice had been bought out by a national chain with obviously quite different practices.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

elenacarlena's picture

In fact, I think we have to; they said it must be "for the general good". The one state is just for the registration. The exempt status comes from the IRS so applies nationwide, but you're considered filed as a nonprofit by the IRS on the day you file with your state.

The hospital chains are really expensive, and I think they're a rip-off too. I don't know if we'll end up able to help with those or if they would break the bank. But we'll see what comes in and do what we can. I'll be asking vets and pet supply companies to chip in; hopefully we'll at least get a few big donors. I wouldn't be surprised if they refuse though, and it ends up being all small donors.

When I was researching articles for the top of this diary, there were some with some pretty awful back and forth. I can see both sides. Of course there are people who have to have their luxuries but never put a dime toward vet care, but there are also people who would do anything and simply no longer have a dime and neither do their families or friends. Of course vets deserve to make a decent living, but there are some who want to live like kings. One commenter claimed to be a UK doctor and said it's against the law there for a vet to refuse help when a pet is suffering. I haven't fact checked that yet, but wouldn't that be wonderful!

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moneysmith's picture

leaving right now, but I'll make a PayPal donation tonight. Congrats on a terrific idea!

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Hell is empty and all the devils are here. William Shakespeare

elenacarlena's picture

And I love your hILLary button!

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Centaurea's picture

This is something I'd like to support. It breaks my heart when I hear about a pet who can't get help because of money. I'll be making a contribution shortly. (By the way, your Ginger could be the cousin of my boy cat (the little lion.) Smile

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

elenacarlena's picture

tabbies are usually male. But Ginger didn't read the fine print, I guess. Biggrin

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TheOtherMaven's picture

The red color is sex-linked (carried on the X chromosome), and there is no corresponding gene on the Y chromosome - so a male cat that gets the red gene from Momma will probably come out red.

It's more complicated with female cats, since they would have to get the red gene from both sides, which means a red male and a red or tortie/calico/torbie (red/tabby) female. Overall the ratio of red males to red females approximates the Mendelian 3 : 1 (but for different reasons).

The "no color gene on the Y chromosome" thing, incidentally, is why 99.99...% of all torties/calicos/torbies are female and the rare males are usually sterile.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Cora Regina's picture

I'm in KY and recently had to cough up somewhere between $1500 and $2000 for treatment for my cats, money that I couldn't really afford all at once but had no choice but to spend. A large portion of that was for just one cat over a very short period of time, who needed numerous vet visits, an absurdly expensive ultrasound at a place that charged a $100 office visit fee on top of it all, etc.

Obviously money is hella tight right now, but when I can I'll definitely chip in something so that hopefully, others won't find themselves in the same predicament. Veterinary care is just so ludicrously expensive; my RN mother was horrified when I told her how much these treatments were costing. $50 for a liter of IV fluids!

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Economic: -9.13, Social: -8.56

elenacarlena's picture

Yes, it is expensive. Insurance doesn't cover everything and you have to already have been on it before trouble starts, so that doesn't solve it. Hopefully we can help.

Thank you for joining us! When you recover a little from that experience, we'll be here.

I hope your kitties are feeling better now!

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riverlover's picture

Also tending to assist c99, another worthy cause we rely on. I have used the services of Cornell Hospital for Animals on multiple times, multiple animals for multiple $$$thousands. I know they refer the sobbing pet owners to at least one organization that might help with expenses. Make sure to solicit advertising service offers at CUHA, Penn, UK (duh) and the rest of the big Vet Schools. They may also be sources, not that you are not already aware, by funding from students, faculty and donors. I do not have enough weight to swing around here.

As well, the are specific breeder list portal sites by state, huge list of breeds, dog and cat (and other breeds) that may have funding arms. Good luck! Rescue the rescuers!

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

elenacarlena's picture

I had thought about vet schools, but not breeding organizations. Great ideas!

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