Message from ARL’s President & CEO

Dear Friend,

Spring represents new beginnings, and refers to love, hope, youth and growth. This year, spring has an even greater meaning with the hope of returning to a somewhat normal way of life. The hope of spending time with loved ones and friends, the hope of travel and adventure, and the hope we have of seeing the smiling faces of our many clients, visitors, and supporters when we can open fully to the public again.

This year also represents new beginnings as we broke ground on our new state-of-the-art facility on our Dedham campus, our Foundation for the Future expected to be completed later this fall. When complete, this new building will increase our efficiencies throughout the organization and strengthen the outcomes for the animals and communities we serve throughout Massachusetts.

You will see in the pages that follow, and in the 2020 Impact Report, the positive animal related outcomes you helped us achieve last year. We are proud to share that with your support, we were able to reach nearly 17,000 animals in need, proving that Compassion can’t be Quarantined.

This is a significant accomplishment since all of our programs were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

ARL refocused and adapted, as the world around us was rapidly changing, never losing focus of our mission, keeping pets and people together. We implemented a new initiative, Keep Pets S.A.F.E. (Supporting Animals Facing Emergencies) providing over 127,000 nutritious meals for pets in need, and opening up our doors to temporarily house pets from individuals negatively impacted by the pandemic, either through health or housing instabilities.

We are proud of all we accomplished, while maintaining a 90% Live Release Rate, a measurement of live outcomes for animals served, and the length of stay statistics for animals coming into our Animal Care & Adoption Centers.

We expanded on our partnership with Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) and began to offer low-cost pet wellness care to the residents of East Boston (an area disproportionately impacted by the pandemic) through our mobile veterinary clinic, the Wellness Waggin'. In September, we returned to the City of Boston with our Spay Waggin', a mobile low cost spay/neuter clinic.

With your generous support, we can continue to adapt to the world around us and be prepared to continue offering emergency services as we begin to resume normal operations.

I hope you will read the stories on the following pages and know that you are the reason we were able to accomplish all we did. You are truly an unwavering champion for animals!

With Gratitude,

Edward Schettino, DVM, PhD, CAWA

President & CEO