The Military often gets a bad rap when it comes to pets. Many in the animal sheltering business consider military families to be "risky" adopters. The truth is, there are many military families who are extremely conscientious about their animals. In fact, some of our best volunteers and supporters are active duty military personnel and their spouses. But this does not negate the fact that some other military pet owners take less responsibility for their pets. Some even seem to view SPCA's as animal libraries, where they can turn in their pet at the end of a tour, and simply check out a new one at an SPCA wherever they are stationed next.

The real problem, just as it is with the civilian community, is a lack of education about pet reponsibility, and an even bigger lack of information about how to meet that responsibility, especially when faced with last-minute moves and other challenges unique to the military community. For this reason, we have put together a couple of links that we think will be helpful to military animal lovers. If you come across other useful information for this section, please email it to specialprojects@vbspca.com, and we will add it to this page for your colleagues.

Military Stats

In the year 2000, the Virginia Beach SPCA received
348 adult dogs, 213 puppies, 298 adult cats, and 199 kittens from military personnel.

That's 1,058 canines and felines out of the 4,844 total we received, or roughly 22 percent.

In the same year, we adopted 179 dogs, 203 puppies, 143 cats and 187 kittens into military homes -- 712 out of 2,544, or about 28 percent.

558 of the 1,102 military personnel who turned in an animal in the year 2000 (including those who brought in "other" animals such as rabbits, gerbils, etc.), left a contribution for the care of their animals. That's 50 percent, compared with 36 percent of civilians who left a "receiving" contribution.

Those 558 military personnel left a grand total of $14,415.07, for an average donation of $25.83. That compares with an average receiving donation from civilians of $25.85.

We are proud of our military, and we are particularly proud of our many close friends and supporters who are active duty. This page is for you!

• MilitaryPetsFOSTER Project (external link)
• Military Pet Owner Preparedness (external link)
• Quarantine and Related Info for Military Families with Pets (external link)
• US War Dogs - canines with courage and loyalty (external link)