Each month, Art for Animals tries to award a wide variety of grants to small rescue groups and shelters where every dollar counts. We applaud new programs and like to give repeat grants to groups that survive and grow. (Many do not; this is a fluid and challenging field.) Our medical grants, which pay for emergency medical care, are also awarded all year around.

Here are just a few of our recent grant recipients:

Pet Rescue: Homes for Animals in Need
This is an all-volunteer rescue that places stray dogs and cats in foster care until they are adopted. Pet Rescue also monitors a large feral cat colony. This Art for Animals grant goes towards the purchase of a new van that will transport animals to veterinarians and adoption centers.

Mohawk-Hudson River Animal Shelter
This is a municipal shelter for the cities of Troy and Albany, NY, that takes in approximately 100 animals a day. The Art for Animals grant will go towards a Ômash spay/neuterÕ event where three veterinarians will form an assembly line to spay/neuter and vaccinate more than 200 dogs and cats in one long day.

Dogs Deserve Better
This group specifically advocates against chaining dogs outdoors, a common practice in rural areas. (Chained dogs often end up in shelters with behavioral problems.) This Art for Animals grant is a general donation towards the organization, which operates through a network of individuals around the country.

City Critters
Cats taken from the streets or animal control are put into a foster network where they are given medical care and placed for adoption. City Critters is known for its work with strays in New York CityÕs Chinatown. This Art for Animals grant will pay the costs for microchipping approximately 100 cats currently in the CrittersÕ foster program.

PoundHounds
This group works with local animal control facilities in small towns where there are no funds provided for strays beyond the costs of food and shelter. PoundHounds provides medical care, spay/neuter surgery and behavioral training, to turn unwanted dogs into desirable ones. This Art for Animals grant will help to pay expenses for dogs currently in need.

Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition (BARC)
This is a small, community oriented shelter in Williamsburg that takes in dogs and cats. This Art for Animals grant goes to a highly popular educational program that brings children and senior citizens to the shelter for animal care training.

Mount Pleasant Animal Shelters
This is a shelter system in New Jersey that operates at full capacity. NickyÕs Second Chance Fund is a new program that provides extraordinary medical care to adoptable dogs who would not otherwise survive. This Art for Animals grant goes to support the shelterÕs efforts to find more ways to save animals.

Husky House
This is a breed rescue group for stray, lost or unwanted Huskies. Huskies are escape artists. Many end up in shelters where they do not thrive. Husky House removes dogs from shelters and provides them with medical attention, training and careful placements in Husky-experienced homes.

Precious Paws
This is a small cat rescue group in Cornwall, NY, that operates with little support and many volunteers. This Art for Animals grant will pay for the spay/neuter of 20 cats currently in the program.

CSM Stray Foundation
CSM is a feral cat rescue group in Queens, NY, that monitors large colonies and trains others to do the same. This Art for Animals grant will go towards the purchase of food provided daily to hundreds of ferals.

Out of the Pits
This is a rescue group for American Pit Bull Terriers. The dogs are taken from all over the East Coast (occasionally from disasters such as Hurricane Katrina) and placed in foster care where they receive training, medical attention and lots of human attention until they can be placed in homes. This Art for Animals grant will go towards medical expenses, often extraordinary given the circumstances for the breed.

All About Spay/Neuter
This small network of individuals takes care of stray cats in Howard Beach, NY. When possible, cats are taken from the city system and put up for adoption. The group focuses on population control.

Bobbi and the Strays
This is a rescue group in Queens, NY, that often removes strays from the streets or from the city municipal shelter. Virtually every dog who comes into this program requires months of medical care, decent food and lots of TLC. This Art for Animals grant is for on-going operating expenses.