Together - We Can!!!

The VAAP Group's goal is to be the voice of Virginia’s animal shelters, humane societies, rescues, Animal Control, and animal welfare organizations.  Its charter is to provide capital improvement and education funding earmarked for shelters and rescues from the Virginia State operating budget while pursuing an aggressive legislative agenda.  An easy-to-use grant process will distribute managed funds case-by-case to the industry. Animal welfare professionals will have access to training and accreditation funding.

VAAP's diverse and comprehensive approach to animal welfare offers a unique blend of public safety/legal initiatives and social programs to improve animal welfare statewide. It identifies needs, obtains resources, drafts and passes legislation, evaluates and recommends technologies to address and ease the daily challenges of animal-related law enforcement, and uses this information to create animal-related social programs that could be considered an animal United Way. 

The committed individuals who put animals’ safety before their own have no representation at the state level.  VAAP will establish a Division of Animal Cruelty Law Enforcement to represent the needs of Animal Control Officers, Dog Control Officers, and Humane Law Enforcement Officers across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Working with the State Legislature and animal welfare partners, VAAP will monitor legislation and work to pass or defeat bills based on their impact on the state’s network of animal shelters and rescues.  

Shelter Animal Count Partnership - Memorandum of Understanding

We are tracking every Virginia shelter and rescue. We have partnered with the Shelter Count Initiative to collect and share data.

We have all of the state legislators, their voting records on animal welfare, and stats on the shelters and rescues in each of their districts.  We will publish the number of animals at the district level, their intake, and disposition to incorporate the Shelter Animal Count monthly info.  The data is annualized for the last three years.  There are 427 animal welfare entities registered in 2023.  We are planning to set up on Salesforce platform ultimately.