Entry for January 10, 2007/Orange For the ASPCA and Animals Everywhere

Dear Friends and Supporters of the ASPCA:

It gives me great pleasure to tell you that ASPCA^® Mission: Orange™ is now officially underway. Launched today from our shelter in New York City, ASPCA^® Mission: Orange™ is a focused, measurable effort to create a country of humane communities, one community at a time, where animals receive the compassion and respect due to them as sentient beings, and where there is no more unnecessary euthanasia of adoptable animals simply because of a lack of resources or awareness.

With the collaboration of community and animal welfare leaders in "target communities" across the country, it is our hope that we will begin to effect immediate, measurable and sustainable change for animals in these communities, especially for those animals most at risk: the shelter population. To this end, the ASPCA will be focusing the bulk of its resources, both financial and programmatic, on building capacity and animal welfare efforts in these communities, aimed at reaching a day when they are sustainable. This will allow the ASPCA to then enter new communities and bring them under the umbrella of ASPCA^® Mission: Orange™—and thus, community by community, create an entire country of humane communities.

On this website, you will find details on the fine work all our partners are doing in the 2007 ASPCA^® Mission: Orange™ target communities. Please visit these pages often, since they will be constantly updated, and let us know what you think of our combined efforts. Remember, your community leaders are in the trenches, fighting animal cruelty, day in and day out. I hope you will give your community heroes the encouragement and acknowledgement they so deserve. Most of all, though, thank you for caring about the fate of animals around the country—it is because of your support and faith that the ASPCA is able to undertake such an ambitious campaign—one that we are convinced will succeed.

Sincerely,