Help Keep Debra’s Legacy at Work Across Virginia

The Debra Griggs VFHS Emergency Rescue Fund was created to help animal welfare organizations respond to the kinds of emergencies that can overwhelm even the most prepared shelter or rescue: large hoarding and cruelty cases, mass-intake situations, urgent medical needs, abandonment, natural disasters, and other extraordinary circumstances.

The fund was established on November 11, Debra’s birthday, in memory of former VFHS President Debra Griggs. Debra spent years bringing people together, advocating for stronger animal welfare policies, and stepping in wherever animals and the people helping them needed support. The most meaningful way we can continue that legacy is by making sure organizations across Virginia have resources available when they suddenly find themselves facing a crisis far beyond their normal capacity.

The Fund Is Already Making a Difference

Over the past two years, the Griggs Fund has helped VFHS members respond to major animal welfare emergencies across Virginia.

Support has helped provide medical care for 158 cats removed from dangerous conditions in Pulaski County, spay/neuter surgeries for dogs from a 106-dog hoarding case in Henry County, and surgery costs for 59 cats and kittens seized in Warren County.

The fund has also helped cover treatment and spay/neuter for more than 60 cats and kittens in Lynchburg and Bedford County, including animals battling panleukopenia and coccidia, and veterinary care for 11 cats left behind after the death of an independent rescuer.

Large-scale cases like these can create immediate, unplanned expenses for veterinary treatment, surgery, transportation, food, supplies, and temporary care. The Griggs Fund helps VFHS members absorb some of those costs so they can focus on getting animals safe, healthy, and moving forward.

Help Us Replenish the Fund for the Next Emergency

Our goal is to raise $25,000 each year to replenish the Debra Griggs Emergency Rescue Fund as those dollars are put to work throughout Virginia.

A donation to this fund does more than prepare VFHS for some abstract future emergency. It helps make sure that when a shelter suddenly receives 59 cats, when organizations are asked to divide up more than 100 dogs from a hoarding case, or when an entire group of animals arrives sick and in need of immediate medical care, there is somewhere those organizations can turn for help.

Griggs Fund support can help member organizations with expenses such as:

Veterinary treatment and urgent medical care
Spay/neuter surgeries for animals involved in large-scale cases
Transportation and other costs associated with moving animals to safety
Food, supplies, and other immediate care needs
Response to hoarding, cruelty, abandonment, mass-intake, and disaster situations

Debra believed deeply in bringing people together to solve difficult problems for animals. Every time this fund helps a Virginia shelter, rescue, or animal control agency take on a case that would otherwise stretch its resources to the breaking point, that legacy continues.

Please help us replenish the Debra Griggs VFHS Emergency Rescue Fund so it can continue helping animals and the organizations that step up for them when they need it most.

Donate today to help fund the next lifesaving response.

The Debra Griggs VFHS Emergency Rescue Fund

Help Keep Debra's Fight Going