ORGANIZATION :

Founded in April 2016, TAILS Foundation Inc’s mission is to help families care for their pets by providing services, resources, and education necessary to obtain optimal health and well-being for their animals. TAILS Foundation Inc has an extensive website that families can access to find the help they need. The Help Center on the website provides resources and collaborates with other nonprofit organizations that help families impacted by the rising cost of living. These programs include Food4TAILS Pet Food Pantry, RainbowTAILS (supporting end-of-life care for terminal/elderly pets), and TAILS4Life (veterinary assistance and resources).

Our goal is to keep pets at home with their families instead of surrendering them to a shelter due to temporary financial situations. Our vision is to create a world where all pet owners have access to basic, affordable pet health care regardless of economic status.

TARGET POPULATION and COMMUNITY NEED:

There are over 80k households in Kootenai County that have pets and of those 3% are likely to give up their animals due to the rising cost of living expenses. When pet owners with incomes lower than $50,000 were asked which service might have helped them the most, the majority indicated free or low-cost veterinary care (40%), free or low-cost spay/neuter services (30%) and free or low-cost pet food (30%). Other concerns would be low-cost training, boarding and pet-friendly housing, including pet deposits.

IMPACT:

Kootenai County is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the fastest growing state in the nation. As our population increases and cost of living rises, it is imperative to provide low-cost veterinary services for the health and welfare of pets in our community. This will also prevent future surrender and euthanasia of unwanted animals due to overpopulation.

THE PUSH FOR LOW-COST VETERINARY CARE:

Currently over 2,000 animals are relinquished to shelters and rescues every year over-filling capacity. Due to covid, spay and neuter services were not a lifesaving procedure, therefore was not a priority. We are now seeing the results of hundreds of animals that were unaltered. Cats specifically are not getting fixed due to the high cost of spay/neuter resulting in over 2,400 kittens in foster care every “season”. With our only low-cost spay/neuter facility in Kootenai County having 4-6 month waiting period, a significant portion of the unaltered pet community does not get fixed before procreating. There is a tremendous need for AFFORDABLE services. Time and time again I see people looking for low-cost options and there are none. People are having to choose between paying rent, food, gas, etc. and having to pay for veterinary care for their pets, which leads to a higher rate of euthanasia for treatable injuries and diseases.

TAILS Foundation Inc

TAILSPawlooza - Healthy Pet Fair 2025

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