About Us
In 2023, Adelaide Pets Alive! was founded and serves the community of Adelaide, South Australia. Fuelled by the urgency to address pet euthanasia, pet homelessness and due to a lack of legal protection for homeless pets, Adelaide Pets Alive! was created to provide a safety net for our furry companions.
FUR BALL - get your tickets now! 21st June @ Adelaide Convention Centre - See our Events section for details
Our Mission
Adelaide Pets Alive! is an organisation driven by a commitment to rehome pets, provide care and treatment to homeless pets, offer vital programs and services to support pet owners, prevent surrender and to nurture the bond between humans and animals.
Our Vision
We envision that homeless pets in Adelaide are met with unwavering compassion and finds a loving and secure forever home. We strive for a community that embraces every pet in need, valuing their lives and safeguarding their well-being. Our commitment is to save and rehome pets, ensuring their safety and overall welfare.
Our Values
Our values represent our fundamental belief that homeless pets deserve a safe and loving home, and that pet owners who want to keep their pet during difficult times are supported to the best of our ability. Our values are compassion, transparency, responsibility and integrity.
Our History
In 2023, Adelaide Pets Alive! was founded and serves the community of Adelaide, South Australia. Fuelled by the urgency to address pet euthanasia, pet homelessness and due to a lack of legal protection for homeless pets, Adelaide Pets Alive! was created to provide a safety net for our furry companions.
Our organisation was inspired by the incredible achievements of Austin Pets Alive! in Texas, an organisation that has rehomed over 100,000 pets. Inspired by their unwavering dedication, we embarked on creating a similar legacy of compassion within our own community.
We are a foster based rescue, as we believe that people and homes optimise the wellbeing of vulnerable animals, not isolation in a cage.
Our team is committed to transparency and accountability by releasing our annual animal data and financial reports.
Adelaide Pets Alive! is a no kill organisation. This means that we have a belief and practice that every pet who we care for is treated and cared for as an individual, with the goal of a live outcome.
Our Core Principals
Our Board Members
Mia, Co-Founder
Hi thanks for being here! My name is Mia and this is my dog Daisy. I am an Intensive Care Nurse. I spearheaded Lucy's Law, a Bill that protected homeless pets in South Australia. My animal welfare advocacy over the last ten years has led me to attend numerous animal welfare conferences in the United States where I met successful animal welfare professionals. These connections remain strong and are still a source of inspiration.
Andrew, Co-Founder and Treasurer
Hi, my name is Andrew and this is my cat Moet. I am a Hospitality Manager. I have a bachelor’s in social work, and I am currently studying a Diploma in Work Health and Safety. I contributed to the submission for Lucy's Law.
Sam, Public Officer
Hi guys! My name is Sam, and this is my dog Willow. I'm a part-time Refugee Health Nurse and full-time animal lover. I have a passion for animal welfare and in making the world a better, more loving place, for all kinds.
Elle, Public Officer
I'm Elle, and I have two beautiful rescue greyhounds. As a dedicated advocate for animal companionship, my passion lies in rehoming and spreading the joy of foster and adoption. I turn my personal experiences into a guiding light of hope for homeless animals.
From Advocacy to Rescue
How Adelaide Pets Alive! was born.
For more than a decade, Mia has fought to save the lives of homeless pets.
Mia was instrumental in the puppy farm raid in the Adelaide Hills that saw over 110 animals rescued by the RSPCA. She also created the first animal shelter playgroup program in Australia, which was facilitated by a playgroup specialist from New York. She also created CASS: Companion Animal Shelter Summit, a day in the South Australian Parliament that brought together animal welfare agencies, rescues and shelters to discuss progressive programs and policies.
Her advocacy has taken her to the United States to learn about successful animal welfare programs. Mia travelled to the United States with a South Australian politician to pursue a Bill that had been implemented in Austin, Texas. It took eleven years and many roadblocks, setbacks and adjustments to create the Statutes Amendment (Animal Welfare Act) Bill 2022, otherwise known as Lucy's Law.
The Bill had unanimous support. Every party signed off on the Bill prior to voting.
After the election in 2022, support for the Bill was revoked by the new Government. This decision ended the possibility of animal welfare progressing in South Australia.
It also left a lack of governance and transparency for rescues and shelters. Due to the status quo and the lack of meaningful change, the only way to move forward and take back some control was to create Adelaide Pets Alive!
Together with her husband Andrew, Adelaide Pets Alive! was born.
A successful shelter Director once said, “get the right people on the bus”. We did, and Elle and Sam finalised our Board members.
In the spirit of Lucy's Law, Adelaide Pets Alive! provides optimal care to our animals, we pay our Bills, we use a cageless model and are a foster based system, we treat all animals as individuals, and we are transparent with publicly providing financial and animal data.