Last week I was half-watching TV while surfing the net, and saw a commercial promoting a charitable venture in Rhode Island that helps lower-income people pay vet’s bills. I was a little surprised because let’s face it, that’s not the sort of thing you see on TV very often. I jotted down the name of the organization and looked them up on the net. Sure enough, there it was: The RIVMA Companion Animal Foundation. Launched in 2004, the Foundation’s mission is to provide funds to the state’s participating veterinary practitioners for compassionate care of pets whose owners are unable to pay. I looked around the web site for awhile, thinking about what a great idea this is, and wondering what other resources are available to folks who love their pets but can’t afford to care for them when they are injured or sick.
Now, I’ve heard all the arguments about why the poor should not own pets, but whether you think this is so or not, the reality is that poor people do own pets. Saying that they shouldn’t doesn’t help those pets one little bit. This article is about finding the means to service animals in crisis, and not about whether their owners deserve to be helped. For me, it isn’t even a debatable question. I decided to do some research to find out just how extensive a safety net is available to low-income pets.
In a general sense, most of the available funding is administered through veterinary practices… they apply for the funds to help defray the cost for a particular patient and are paid directly. This means that office staff is required to do a lot of extra paperwork. I’m guessing that many vets do not have the labor force in place to take on these extra duties. Regular well-care visits and health maintenance procedures are usually not eligible for grant funding. In many cases, eligibility is tied to the pet owner’s participation in government assistance programs, although some grantors will allow veterinarians to use their discretion in selecting a potential grantee, backed up by some other supporting documentation of financial hardship. There’s often a ceiling on just how much funding a veterinary practice can access in a given year. There’s also usually a limit on how much help any one pet family can get.
One of the first sites I visited was the Humane Society of the United States. They do not have funds available for vet care, but they have a page of suggestions for pet owners in distress. Some of the suggestions are pretty good. They suggest having a heart to heart talk with your vet. That’s a good suggestion because vets usually know where financial help is available - they’ve been down that road many, many times. Others suggestions seem less than helpful - things like “use your credit card” or “call your bank” or “ask your employer for a salary advance” are hardly helpful to people with no credit, tiny bank accounts and slave wage jobs.
