It has long been a dream of the entire team at AERC to start what is commonly called an “angel fund.” An angel fund is a charitable fund, supported by donations, that helps
subsidize pet care. Angel funds exist for all kinds of reasons. Some angel funds contribute money to help treat a pet for cancer, some are exclusive to a particular breed of dog, and others may only cover preventive care such as vaccines and spays or neuters.
Most of the pets that our referral center treats come to us for emergency and critical care. Often, the cost of such care can be difficult to budget for, and as you can imagine, it can be difficult to secure a loan at 3:00 a.m.! Coupling financial difficulties with the stress a pet owner feels when a beloved pet’s injury or illness is life-threatening and urgent, and you can imagine that we often see people on one of the worst days of their lives.
Sometimes people ask why we can’t just give care away when it is needed that badly. Truly, everyone in the veterinary business joined it because they wanted to help pets, and so, we understand why people ask that question. That being said, the cost of veterinary care – whose quality often rivals that of human medicine – is far less than care for humans. But fortunately, most people have insurance, so we never really see the true cost of our care. In order to provide the advanced level of care, the highly-trained staff and specialists, and the patient-centric hospitals that we do at AERC, we expend a lot of financial resources.
While the cost of our care is not free, we still want to assist owners in providing necessary care, thus prolonging the life of the pet and easing the financial burden of the pet owner. That is why we created our own Angel fund: Pets on the Mend (POM). POM is AERC’s charitable fund under the 501(c)(3) Veterinary Care Foundation. POM provides monetary assistance to dogs or cats being treated at Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota (AERC) for life-threatening health ailments or injuries.
To donate to this fund to help us help pet owners and pets in need, go to https://veterinarycarefoundation.org.
