Arizona Humane Society program helps pets when owners pass away

What happens to your beloved pets when you pass away? A new program through the Arizona Humane Society allows owners to automatically enroll their pets should they pre-decease them.

Vanessa Cornwall, the Planned Giving Manager of the Humane Society, spoke with us about the program.

“The program that we have, where we care for people’s pets if something happens to them, is called our Continuing Care program. The way that it works if you are a member of our Legacy Circle, which is our group of donors who have included the Arizona Humane Society in their state plans, you become eligible to enroll your pets. In the situation where we have a donor who does pre-decease their pets, we recognize that they have just lost the person who loves them the most and they’ve gone through a trauma, so we want them to avoid the additional trauma of finding themselves in an unfamiliar environment like a shelter,” Cornwall said.

Those pets are admitted directly into foster care. There are pet profiles with detailed information that are used to find the pets a new loving home, according to Cornwall.

“To become a member of Continuing Care, you must be a member of the Legacy Circle. But there is no minimum gift. That’s one of the things I love about our program. You can make a gift of $500 or you can make a gift of five million dollars. Either way, we’ll find a new loving home for your pet,” Cornwall said.

There are events held each year to keep members in the Legacy Circle in the know about programs details concerning the Arizona Humane Society, according to Cornwall.

“There are different benefits to being a Legacy Circle Member,” Cornwall said.

The money that come from the donors funds about 25% of the Society’s annual operating expenses. There is also a new campus opening next summer in Papago Park, Cornwall said.

“We were able to save Legacy Circle’s gifts over the years and use a substantial amount of those to fund that new campus as well,” Cornwall said. “They truly do help transform our organization and are so essential to the work that we do every day.”