Due to insufficient funds and overpopulation, Fort Worth shelters will be pressured to euthanize about 200,000 of their in-house animals each year.

Fort Worth has more than 20,000 dogs and cats enter its shelters each year, and 70 percent of these animals are given up by their owners.

Inspired by these facts and stories of throwaway pets like Hope, an abused pug-mix that had been stabbed and left for dead, a group of women created the Saving Hope Foundation.

The Saving Hope Foundation’s mission is to find homes for deserving animals, spread education on responsible pet ownership, promote and provide affordable medical care for pets and try to reduce the 4.6 million euthanizations in the nation to zero. By creating local initiatives, they hope to relieve the pressure on overpopulated shelters to euthanize their animals.

Through combined partnerships with multiple Fort Worth organizations, the Saving Hope Foundation has pledged itself to create The Hope Mobile, a mobile spay and neutering clinic, servicing the Fort Worth area at a reduced price.

“Spaying and neutering is just one of the ways we will help solve this problem; however, education on responsible pet ownership is equally important,” said Kelsey Patterson, a director of the Saving Hope Foundation. These messages must be paired together to make a difference.

Along with the medical services The Hope Mobile provides, it also allows owners to register their pets. Patterson explains that pet registration is an important part of responsible pet ownership. If a pet is lost, registration allows the pet to be quickly identified and returned home to its owner.

The Hope Mobile expects to medically treat 13,400 animals in three-years.

“This initiative is teaching our young people to be compassionate, teaching them to not only care about each other, but the world and things around them, and that to me is critical. To understand the suffering of others is important for our future,” Patterson said.

The Hope Mobile was launched June 29, 2013.