PAWS United in Purpose: Why We Exist

Animal Defenders Alliance was created because the animal welfare system is broken, and the ones paying the price are animals and the people who love them.

Every day, families are forced to surrender pets they desperately want to keep. Shelters are overwhelmed. Rescues are stretched thin. Communities are left without the resources, education, or support they need. And behind it all is a system that reacts to crisis instead of preventing it.

We want to be clear about who we are.

Animal Defenders Alliance is not a rescue.

We are an advocacy organization focused on systemic change in animal welfare, because no amount of individual rescue can fix a system that keeps producing harm.

But we also believe something deeply important:
The most humane rescue is the one that never has to happen.

That’s why our work exists at two levels:

On one level, we fight for accountability and enforcement. We advocate for the real application of animal welfare laws, stronger oversight of rescue and shelter systems, and policies that protect animals before cruelty occurs. Animals deserve protection built into the system — not dependent on luck, geography, or social media attention.

On another level, we work to keep pets with their families. Because most surrenders are not about a lack of love, they’re about a lack of resources. Housing insecurity. Medical costs. Behavioral challenges. Temporary hardship. Gaps in access to care and information.

We believe families shouldn’t lose their pets because the system failed to support them.

We do everything in our power to work upstream, educating, advocating, connecting people with resources, and challenging the structures that make surrender feel like the only option.

Our mission is simple, but not easy:

To reduce suffering by changing the systems that cause it.
To protect animals through accountability, not optics.
To keep families together whenever possible.
And to build an animal welfare future rooted in prevention, transparency, and justice.

PAWS United in Purpose exists because animal welfare is not just an emotional issue; it is a policy issue, a community issue, and a justice issue.

And we believe real change doesn’t come from reacting to the worst outcomes.
It comes from making sure they never happen in the first place.

This is our commitment.
To animals.
To families.
And to a system that must and will do better.