Welcome to AARF
Anguilla location
Adoption Center and Rescue shelter
Sandy, one of our
rescued island dogs
The Anguilla Animal Rescue Foundation (AARF) is a non–profit organization dedicated to the welfare of dogs, puppies, cats and kittens on the Caribbean island of Anguilla.
Founded in September 2000, we are 100% unpaid and 100% volunteer–driven with an adoption center and rescue shelter located within Anguilla’s only veterinary clinic.
Anguilla is a very small island which lies about 140 miles east of Puerto Rico. It’s very small — only 16 miles long by 3 miles wide. The land area is about 35 square miles, or about 91 km2. (If you want to learn more about Anguilla, here are a few pointers to more bits of information.)
The population is about 12,000 and the ratio of pets to those owners wanting pets is very high. Most people who want a pet have one, but there are many animals available.
AARF History and Quick Tour
We have a short 3 minute video that shows our shelter and our history is summarized in an article covering our our ten year anniversary (we turned 10 in 2010).
Mission Statement
Our mission is to:
Promote the welfare of dogs, cats, puppies and kittens on Anguilla.
We work to accomplish that mission via several activities and programs. Specifically, we:
- Maintain an adoption center and rescue shelter that takes in unwanted animals.
- Provide for adoptions of healthy animals at a reasonable cost.
- Socialize incoming animals to make them adoptable.
- Educate the public in the humane treatment and care of animals. In particular, we have an education program that visits school children with a classroom presentation runs several times a year and publish articles in the nation’s newspaper and tourist literature.
- Attempt to reduce the population of unwanted animals through education and by providing spay and neuter surgery to new adopters and with targeted Trap, Neuter and Release (TNR) programs. We provide for need–based spays and neuters on a case by case basis.
More About AARF
We are an established non–profit corporation and have a subsidiary corporation in Florida (the Anguilla Animal Rescue Corporation or AARC) that has been granted U.S. 501(c)(3) status.
We receive no funding from any official source; 100% of our budget comes from donations, fundraisers and the sale of a small amount of merchandise. Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) minutes talk about our finances and accomplishments. Our most current one is here.
If you would like to help, please see our How to Help page. We have a PayPal button linked to AARC to make it easy to donate (and allowing for tax deduction) to AARF.
Contact us if you have any questions or comments.
Also, please join our low–volume, one–way announce aarfupdate email list, which provides up to the minute information about happenings. We also have a two–way forum on Facebook for everyone to post news and items of interest.
We Have a Video!
We have a short video that describes us and shows our shelter. See it in various sizes (smallest to largest):
- Mobile (480 x 720), 7.5 MB
- High Quality (640 x 360), 17.4 MB
- High Definition (1280 x 720), 53 MB
- Huge (1920 x 1080), 68.7 MB
- Or see it on Vimeo
The video was generously done for us by Encyclomedia while they were here on Anguilla filming another project.
Web Site Notes
Click on images with a thick gray border (such as the one around Sandy the dog above) for an enlargement or for more information.
Click on the “Like” button to join us on our Facebook page. You only need to do this liking thing once.
You can use the Send button to send the address of our Facebook page to someone (as many times as you want).
June 18
Still many, too many puppies!
We have too many puppies; see below.
In the New Jersey area, Island Puppy Rescue has puppies of ours that were transported by helpful AARF friends. Those puppies are available for adoption now! Thumbnails are below our shelter guests.
Available for Adoption:
Puppies and dogs (those at the top have been in the shelter the longest; the ones listed last are the newest comers):
- Pear — male puppy, black and white chest
- Nectarine — female puppy, brown and white
- Tamarind — female puppy, white
- Wise — female puppy, black and tan
- Princess — female older dog
- Toby — male puppy older dog
Kittens and cats:
- Cherry — female kitten, tabby
- Perry — male kitten
In the New Jersey area? Three of our Anguilla puppies are already there in foster care and are available for adoption. See here for more details.
Note: For larger images and more information, click on any thumbnail image below or go directly to our Available page.
Cherry (right)
Pear
Nectarine
Tamarind
Wise
Perry
Princess
Toby
Island Puppy Rescue, in New Jersey is up and Running!
They will have Anguilla puppies from time to time
In the New Jersey area? Island Puppy Rescue has Anguilla puppies in foster care. They were transported by AARF friends and are available for adoption now. Go to Island Puppy Rescue for more descriptions and learn how to adopt them.
Island Puppy Rescue will have Anguilla puppies several times a year. Contact them for more information and we will broadcast on this web site, our email list and Facebook when pets are available for adoption.
Reggae
Reggae is a wonderful, friendly and playful puppy living in a foster home in NJ with other dogs and a toddler, all of whom she does great with. She is 99% housetrained and ready to go to her forever home.
Bear
Poor Bear, through no fault of his own, has had to leave his family and is in need of a new, permanent home. Bear is 18 months old, 45 pounds,neutered, fully vetted, fully trained, well mannered and adores everyone he meets, human and canine. He needs an active family (a jogger would be perfect) that loves the outdoors. Definitely not an apartment dweller! If you would like to learn more about Bear, please email us at IPR.
New shirts and Bandanas
As of May 2013, we have new shirts in bright, vibrant colors, and bandanas in many styles. Examples:
New shirts in new colors
New shirts in new colors
Bandanas
See all of our cool stuff in the “Goodies for Sale ” link in the Navigation bar to the left.
Quick News Items
- AARF had its AGM which covered our 2012 year. The minutes are here (in PDF format).
- Puppy Transport to selected East Coast cities needed Puppy transport expenses will be paid; you just take them with you! Get the details below.
- Our 3rd annual Viceroy Raffle is on, to benefit shelter improvements and expenses. We have 4 great prizes: a night at Viceroy, a painting of Sandy Ground, Dinner at the premier Picante restaurant and a lovely homemade baby quilt. Get the details here.
- We always need newspapers! Puppies do what puppies do and they do it a lot. We should call them poopies… If you have newspapers that you can donate, just drop them off at the shelter during any open hours. Thank you.
- We also have a need for metal food and water bowls that can be easily sterilized (preferably stainless steel with no rubber or plastic parts). Best are the ones that aren’t easily tipped over by exuberant puppies.
- Whether you donate cash or goods, buy AARF stuff, stop by the shelter to walk dogs or play with the puppies and kittens, attend our fundraisers, send us emails of support, share our stories on Facebook, or pass the word about AARF to your friends – all of your kindnesses mean so much to us and without your support we could not accomplish what we do! Thank you!
- If you are just visiting Anguilla, it’s easy to adopt a puppy or kitten and take her/him home to the States or Canada with you! Stop by the shelter, meet our guests, and talk to the volunteer on duty about the procedure. Also check out the adoptions information on our Adoption Basics web page. We have lots of details about adopting internationally as well as locally, and lots of “happy tails” to share.
Puppy Transporters Needed to take to Boston, JFK, Newark or Philadelphia
Not ready to adopt and take a loving bit of Anguilla home, but heading back from Anguilla to JFK, Newark, Boston, Philly, Baltimore or nearby destinations?
If so, we have puppies who need a lift — their expenses are paid and you would be saving a life!
People who have taken our puppies and kittens along with them in the past all say how much they enjoyed it. The pets are always the center of attention at the airline gates and on the plane and are good travelers.
Call us at the shelter (264.476.2731) or send email to our general email account for details. Spread the word!
pet carriers and crates are needed
Are you coming to Anguilla? Would you be willing to bring some donated soft pet carriers to us?
We have a donor in Boston who has generously offered us several soft pet carriers. Since shipping to Anguilla is quite expensive, we are hoping to find some travelers willing to bring us the carriers. Our donor will mail them to you in the States. You don–t have to do anything except get them in the mail and bring one or two down to us!
If you can bring one or two or more, we would be very grateful.
These carriers will be used for international adoptions of our shelter puppies and kittens. If you can help, send us an email at our main email address. Let us know how many you can bring.
Do you have usable pet carriers/crates you don–t need any more? AARF has a crate (the plastic ones) rental program, which is very useful for people who don–t have their own carriers and need one to transport their newly adopted puppy or bring in their kitten for follow up vaccinations. Somehow these rental crates tend to disappear and we don’t have many right now. If you have an older but still usable carrier that you no longer need, please consider donating it to AARF; we could definitely use it.
Watch Our Short Video!
Seen the video made by professionals doing a reality show on Anguilla? If not, it’s on this (main index) page, near the bottom of the page. (Here is a shortcut link).
AARF becomes one of the first members of Petsmart’s new “Hard Goods Donation” program
Petsmart has begun rollout of a new addition to their already impressive set of charitable programs for animals and shelters in North America and around the world. This program calls for the donation of excess goods that might otherwise be recycled or trashed.
AARF’s animals, adopters and Anguilla stand to benefit from donations coming from Petsmart in Puerto Rico. We hope to receive ongoing donations of things like beds, toys, leashes and other items that are transportable to Anguilla.
Read the press release; note that AARF is the first organization listed in the press release!
Many thanks go to Petsmart for including us in this new program.
Donate Using PayPal Our PayPal button is working well, and we have gotten many wonderful donations. This is helping us greatly with our shelter, adoptions, and programs like Spay/Neuter, designated Funds and even some special donations to extend certain dogs and cats that have touched us all.
Click on the graphic on the navigation bar on our main pages. It leads to our revamped “How to Help AARF” page. Thanks very much in advance to those wanting to help AARF.
Volunteers Wanted! From time to time we have a need for volunteers to drive animals to and from the clinic for surgery or other medical treatment.
Not all animals’ people have their own transportation, so we are looking for volunteers to help them and us.
Volunteers can borrow crates from the shelter if needed, pick up the animal at home and transport her to the clinic and/or transport her home again when she is done at the vet’s.
If you are interested in helping, please either send an email to our General email account or call the shelter at 476.2731. The shelter phone is only staffed when a volunteer is on duty, but it has voicemail. So leave a message if we’re not there and we’ll get back to you.
We have been asked about the dolphinarium at Blowing Point. Here is our position on the issue.