Photos from: SPCAI Partner Anima Leondo Road in the Dominican Republic
Everyone needs a little more help and compassion these days as the devastating COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the globe. This includes humans and animals alike. Now, through the Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International (SPCAI) and their new ‘My Next Bowl’ campaign, there is a stress-free way to help both, simultaneously, for as little as one dollar!
‘My Next Bowl,’ a collaboration between SPCAI and Marley’s Mutts Dog Rescue, was created to fill the bowls of hungry homeless animals around the world. For every dollar donated to the campaign from May 5th through May 9th a homeless dog will be fed. As of this morning, the ‘My Next Bowl’ campaign has raised more than $40,000.
This important life-saving campaign also includes creative Facebook content featuring interviews with industry professionals, front line shelter workers, and animal advocates from around the world who discuss their work in animal welfare and how they are dealing with the current crisis.
“Whether you can feed an animal for a day, a week, or a month. Any amount will help,” noted a post on the SPCAI Facebook page.“100% of donations collected through ‘My Next Bowl’ will be distributed to animal shelters and animal welfare groups so that they can feed and care for homeless pets.”
WAN talked exclusively with Meredith Ayan, the Executive Director of SPCAI about their important fundraiser and how the organization pulled off an event in less than two weeks that would normally take one year to produce.
Ayan explained to WAN that ‘My Next Bowl’ grew organically as a response to an onslaught of requests for assistance from the SPCAI’s partners and shelters throughout the world. Sadly, many rescues and shelters are struggling to feed the animals in their care during this tragic time.
“We are always looking for innovative ways to help partners that are helping community animals in their care, as well as the people caring for them.”
“We originally focused on China, but quickly realized that COVID-19 and its devastating effects were a larger problem, now touching every country,” continued Ayer, further sharing that, at first, they tried to help those in need one by one. Ultimately, SPCAI launched the ‘My Next Bowl’ campaign as a way to help as many animals and partners as possible during these unprecedented times.
While many shelters in the United States are reporting record foster and adoption rates, those in the hardest-hit cities, such as Detroit, Michigan, are facing food and funding shortages. In fact, according to Ayan, the Detroit Animal Welfare Group (DAWG), which is among the organizations SPCAI is helping, has reported that they are experiencing more surrenders than usual.
Along with the support of ‘My Next Bowl’ donors, SPCAI’s far-reaching helping hand also extends to proven partners worldwide including: SPCAI Italia Protezione Animali in Italy, which is trying to feed an influx of abandoned animals, as well as helping people who are out of work feed their pets; Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA) in Lebanon, which is currently caring for an estimated 850 dogs and 200 cats; and Anima Leondo Road in the Dominican Republic, which has instituted a feeding program for animals who have been left without food due to the closure of restaurants, as well as the inability of people who usually feed them.
Donations to ‘My Next Bowl’ will also fill the bowls of hungry animals in such countries as: Iraq, Jamaica, Tanzania, and Romania, among others.
“If we lose these shelters in these vulnerable counties, we lose what those rescues have fought for—compassion, empathy, mindfulness, and the idea that every life matters and has worth,” Marley’s Mutts Dog Rescue shared in a powerful post on its Facebook page.
“These are all partners that SPCAI has worked with for years,” Ayan told WAN, noting that they come from SPCAI’s shelter support programs. “We have verified them already and are confident the funds we send them generated by the ‘My Next Bowl’ campaign will be spent in the most responsible way.”
