VOCAL IS
DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS
ABOUT VOCAL
We're Fresh, Unique and Different
A new era in animal welfare has arrived.
The VOCAL Community Clinic and Resource Center is the first of its kind in Marion County! In 2015, our founders, Linda Norman, Kate Rengel and Lauren Carpenter initially envisioned a low-cost spay neuter clinic to stop overpopulation as its source and to provide support for people who care for unwanted and under-resourced pets. Today, the VOCAL Community Clinic and Resource Center is often a lifeline to pet parents who need veterinary care for their animal, but find it prohibitively expensive.
VOCAL’s Tammy Green Daniels Fix the Future Fund was originally created to assist caregivers with the cost of spay-neuter to prevent more births of unwanted animals with no place to go. As we began to understand the challenges and barriers to our mission of solving the homeless pet problem, our dream expanded to meet more of the needs of our animal community.
Preventing overpopulation through sterilization was just the first step.
Fixing the future for our community's pet population is so much more than spay and neuter surgeries. Pets need preventative care, and pets need relief from the pain of ear infections, decayed teeth, allergies, and skin issues. Sometimes they need life-saving surgeries that were just not financially feasible for some owners, leaving euthanasia as the only solution. VOCAL's Community Clinic and Resource Center has helped pet parents avoid that painful decision and instead given them the gift of life.
Keeping pets in their homes (and out of shelters) by providing medical and food resources to pet parents who need a little help, was the next step and VOCAL took it. Providing resources to rescue organizations such as reduced cost surgeries, low-cost dental care, and pet food from our warehouse enables them to help more animals. Providing solutions for feral cats and helping their caregivers with spay-neuter, medical care for hurt or sick cats, and food ensures that colony cats can live healthy lives outdoors and gives needed support to the people who love them.
Fixing the future for our community's pet population is so much more than spay and neuter surgeries. Pets need preventative care, and pets need relief from the pain of ear infections, decayed teeth, allergies, and skin issues. Sometimes they need life-saving surgeries that were just not financially feasible for some owners, leaving euthanasia as the only solution. VOCAL's Community Clinic and Resource Center has helped pet parents avoid that painful decision and instead given them the gift of life.
Keeping pets in their homes (and out of shelters) by providing medical and food resources to pet parents who need a little help, was the next step and VOCAL took it. Providing resources to rescue organizations such as reduced cost surgeries, low-cost dental care, and pet food from our warehouse enables them to help more animals. Providing solutions for feral cats and helping their caregivers with spay-neuter, medical care for hurt or sick cats, and food ensures that colony cats can live healthy lives outdoors and gives needed support to the people who love them.
Local shelters are often over-capacity. VOCAL's Community Clinic and Resource Center stands ready to provide practical support to "good Samaritans" who find stray animals and take them into their home and off the street. People love animals and so do we! We know that we will not solve the homeless pet problem through adoption alone. We are fortunate to live in a community that has embraced the concept of "no kill" and has taken death off the table as a solution to pet overpopulation. Solving the homeless pet problem takes all of us working towards a common goal and the commitment of citizens who want to live in an animal friendly community.
Help Us Reach Our GoalVOCAL IS DRIVEN BY
Our Mission
At VOCAL, our mission is to solve the homeless pet problem through prevention, community outreach, adoption and collaboration.
PREVENTION
If that sounds like a big mission, you are right, it is, especially when you consider that Marion County, Florida has an estimated 40,000 unsterilized cats and dogs. Without aggressive intervention through targeted spay-neuter programs, they will only continue to reproduce and add to the homeless pet population. Through our Community Clinic & Resource Center, we provide both low-cost and often no cost spay-neuter services to public clients, community caregivers, and partner rescue organizations.
ADOPTION
When no other option is feasible or desirable, and as space allows, we taken in at-risk pets into our foster and adoption program. Once they come in, they are safe, fed, vetted and loved. We look for the perfect match for every animal we adopt out. Each year we take in a few hundred animals, mostly pulling directly from our county facility and often receiving motherless neonatal kittens through our TNR program.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
While the heart of our mission will always be the animals we serve, we also recognize that there are many families who love their pets deeply but are unable to provide care for their pets. Our outreach programs focus on reducing intake into our local shelters and rescues by providing resources and connecting with these families to improve both the lives of the people and their pets.
We believe that keeping pets in loving homes is a multifaceted approach. Through our Project FEED program, we provide food assistance for over 3,000 animals in our local Marion County community. At our Community Clinic, we offer vaccines, routine procedures, and life-saving surgery, all at an affordable cost. Through our TNR (trap-neuter-return) program, we offer assistance to caregivers of feral cats in order to control the homeless cat population while keeping community cats safe, healthy, and thriving.
We believe that keeping pets in loving homes is a multifaceted approach. Through our Project FEED program, we provide food assistance for over 3,000 animals in our local Marion County community. At our Community Clinic, we offer vaccines, routine procedures, and life-saving surgery, all at an affordable cost. Through our TNR (trap-neuter-return) program, we offer assistance to caregivers of feral cats in order to control the homeless cat population while keeping community cats safe, healthy, and thriving.
COLLABORATION
Working hand-in-hand with other animal welfare groups and like-minded shelters is part of the solution. We believe in working together for the benefit of the animals and people we serve. Our Rescue Food program provides food, litter, and other pet items to around 100 other non-profit rescues and shelters across Florida and Georgia. Our Community Clinic works hand-in-hand with other rescue organizations to provide services for rescued cats and dogs awaiting their new homes, as well as providing additional veterinary services to the public through grants and donations.
VOCAL IS DRIVEN BY THESE
Core Values
INNOVATION
It has been said that the definition of insanity is to do the same things and expect different results. At VOCAL, we determined early on that positive outcomes for homeless and unwanted dogs and cats in our community required out of the box thinking and solutions.
COMPASSION
Compassion is a pre-requisite in the animal welfare world. Our compassion for the animals in need is a driving force. Our compassion is not just for the animals though. People who find themselves in situations beyond their control that affect their family pets, or animals they took in unexpectedly, are treated with compassion and respect.
INTEGRITY
At VOCAL we are transparent in everything we do. We have earned the platinum rating from Guidestar, a nationally recognized charity rating service. Platinum is the highest level awarded.
TEAMWORK
Our employees, board members and volunteers understand that it takes teamwork to accomplish our mission and goals. We all bring our strengths to the tasks at hand and help each other to focus on the end-game. No egos allowed. Respect is more than a word. It is required to be on the team.
COURAGE AND COMMITMENT
It takes courage and commitment to work in the animal welfare arena. The highs and lows can be extreme. In the end, the happy endings that we are a part of help us to continue to work to change the sad ones.
VOCAL IS DRIVEN BY
Our Goals
At VOCAL, our mission is to solve the homeless pet problem through prevention, community outreach, adoption and collaboration.
SPAY-NEUTER
Increasing access to spay-neuter surgery for certain low-income pet owners and for feral cat caregivers is one of the goals for our Community Clinic & Resource Center. We believe that sterilization of feral and community cats must be a priority. Our focus is large dogs and pit-bull type dogs, as these types make of majority of homeless dogs in our community.
ADOPTIONS
Helping our animals get adopted faster will open space for other animals who need us. One goal is to implement behavioral training for dogs in our care. Increasing our available foster homes will also enable us to take in more animals. That goal will be met by increasing our volunteers who are willing to foster.
PARTNERSHIPS
Building strong partnerships with other animal welfare organizations is a key goal. We want to see a coalition that collectively addresses the issues that our dogs and cats face in the current environment.
PET RETENTION
Helping people keep their pets instead of surrendering them to a shelter, or abandoning them is a strategic focus for VOCAL. Our Project Feed - Pet Food Bank provides food and some supplies to pet owners and caregivers in need. Our goal is to meet the needs of our community and expand the program.
The Vocal Community Clinic and Resource Center offers healthy pet services to the public through our monthly Shot Clinics. We also offer low-cost spay-neuter services to the public as well as our rescue partners. Additionally, we offer low-cost specialty surgeries and wellness services.
The Vocal Community Clinic and Resource Center offers healthy pet services to the public through our monthly Shot Clinics. We also offer low-cost spay-neuter services to the public as well as our rescue partners. Additionally, we offer low-cost specialty surgeries and wellness services.
ADVOCACY
Speaking up is certainly at the heart of our mission and our name- Voices of Change Animal League. We believe that silence is not golden when it comes to the animals who count on us to advocate for them. We are speaking out on developing a plan to achieve a true no-kill community and we are speaking out on behalf of abused animals who are caught up in dog-fighting activities and breeding for such.
SUSTAINABILITY
We are conservative in our approach to our finances. None of our three founders take any salary so that overhead remains as low as possible. We are debt-free. Although we are a young organization, we have established an endowment for future funding as it grows. When someone leaves us money in their will or by naming us as a beneficiary of their life insurance, that legacy goes directly to the endowment so that VOCAL will be sustained as an organization that positively impacts animals for future generations.
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