Grand Rapids Pitbull Alliance

22/06/2024

We are so excited to celebrate at Grand Rapids Pride with everyone today 🏳️‍🌈

GRPBA Ambass-a-Bull Pepper Earl has a very important reminder for everyone attending.

"Its too HOT 🔥 outside please Leave your Pets at Home!"

We love the doggos as you all know but today may not be the best day to bring them. We are under a severe heat advisory with the temps climbing into the 90s! Heatstroke in pets is very real and deadly, please keep your fur child at home where they can keep cool and safe.

But PLEASE come show us all the photos and videos of your doggos, kits, bunnies, birds, reptiles 🐾

📍 We are Booth #174 near the intersection of Pearl and Ottawa.

Let's have a safe, happy, Pride today! 🏳️‍🌈 ❤️
Keep an eye out for each other!
Hydrate 💦

20/06/2024

PLEASE LOOK AT YOUR PETS MICROCHIP INFORMATION NOW!

Microchips are essential in getting lost pets back to their families.

Is your Pets Microchip information up to date?

Have you recently had a address change?

Has your phone number changed?

Did you recently adopt a pet directly from the previous owner?

When was the last time you looked at the information registered to your pets Microchip?

1) make sure the microchip is registered

2) ask your veterinarian to scan your pet's microchip at least once per year to make sure the microchip is still functioning and can be detected

3) keep your registration information up-to-date with any address, phone number and email changes.

If you've moved, or if any of your information (especially your phone number) has changed, make sure you update your microchip registration in the manufacturer's database as soon as possible.

Let's keep our pets safe and secure for the 4th of July Holiday 🐾

19/06/2024

GRPBA Pride fundraiser shirts are in and they are Awesome! Shirts will be available to purchase from GRPBAs booth at the Grand Rapids Pride Festival this Saturday June 22nd.

Artwork by our amazing friend Aaron McCall dot net ❤️

This year Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance has chosen local non-profit Prism Pathway to donate 50% of the proceeds from the sale of our 2024 Pride Shirts too 🏳️‍🌈

Prism Pathway is a local non-profit organization dedicated to providing a healthy space for LGBTQ+ individuals, their families, and friends to find community, receive education, and pursue advocacy efforts in a small-town setting.

We also encourage direct donations to Prism Pathway through their website :

https://www.prismpathway.org/support-us

#

19/06/2024

Today volunteers Li & Tanelle distributed pet food at the Fuller Ave Church Tuesday food pantry and their weekly Grill and Chill dinner. This was GRPBAs first visit, we were greeted with warm welcomes and smiles.

We had some great conversations, made new friends and handed out dog and cat food. We learned that many of the pets of those we spoke with were already spay or neutered, woot woot!

We look forward to more Tuesday events at our new friends Fuller Ave Church. Next date GRPBA will be there is TBD.

We do have some spots left for the Bissell Pet Foundation Fix The Future Spay and Neuter Event on July 2nd. If you are a pet parent with a limited income in need of spay and neuter for your dog please email [email protected]

Signing up is time sensitive and spots are limited.

17/06/2024

Stay Safe During Extreme Heat 🥵

Hot temperatures combined with high humidity levels are expected to create dangerous heat conditions, with the most oppressive conditions this week!

The hot temperatures and high heat indices can lead to serious heat related-illnesses for both people and pets.

Please be sure to check on your neighbors especially our senior community.

Extreme Heat Safety Tips 🔥

NEVER leave children or pets alone in a closed vehicle. Even with the windows cracked open, interior temperatures can rise almost 20°F within 10 minutes.

Slow down and avoid strenuous activity
Drink plenty of fluids — even if you are not thirsty. Avoid alcoholic beverages and liquids high in sugar or caffeine. If your doctor generally limits the amount of fluid you drink, ask how much you should drink during hot weather.

Wear lightweight, loose-fitting, light-colored clothing. Light colors reflect heat and sunlight, and help maintain normal body temperature
Stay indoors as much as possible and limit exposure to the sun. Do not leave pets outside for extended periods of time.

If you must be outdoors, limit your outdoor activity to the morning and evening hours. Try to rest often in shady areas so your body temperature will have a chance to recover. Use sunscreen with a high SPF and wear a wide-brimmed hat.

If you do not have air conditioning:
stay on your lowest floor, out of the sun.

Use fans to stay cool.

Avoid using your stove and oven
Consider spending time in air-conditioned public spaces (libraries, theaters)

List of Grand Rapids Cooling Centers.

Take care of each other friends

17/06/2024

Hot Weather Advisory Reminder 🥵🔥

We are going to be experiencing very high temperatures this week.

Pets will overheat in this heat and humidity.

Keep them cool, provide lots of water, consider skipping the daily walk. If you need to walk them do so in the shade, stay on the grass, bring water and keep the walks brief.

Provide indoor enrichment frozen Kongs, Flavored ice cubes, pupsicles, scatter feed or feed out of a food puzzle or snuffle mat.

Keep outdoor time short, be sure you have a space in the shade for them and clean water they can access

Play in the kiddy pool 🌊 bob for treats!

Keep them hydrated!

Cars and the Sun and Heat 🚗

Please refrain from leaving you pets in your car, the best place for them to be on a hot day like today is at home. If you must run errands with your pup please only do errands that allow you to drive thru, or curbside.

While humans cool themselves by relying on an extensive system of sweat glands and evaporation, dogs and other animals have a harder time staying cool, leaving them extremely vulnerable to heatstroke.

Parked cars quickly trap the sun’s heat. Even on a day when it’s 70 degrees outside, the temperature inside a car with all the windows closed can hit 89 degrees in just 10 minutes, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Think about the temperature inside a greenhouse compared to the outside temperature.

On a hot day, the temperature inside a closed car can shoot as high as 114 degrees in the same amount of time. Leaving the windows open a crack doesn’t eliminate the danger of heatstroke or death.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, studies have shown that cracking a window changes these figures very little. A parked car with the windows cracked heats up at almost the exact same rate as a car with the windows rolled up, putting pets in serious danger.

14/06/2024

The 4th of July is 3 weeks away and NOW is the time to contact your Veterinarian for any behavoir medications your pet will need for the 4th of July Holiday.🎆

It is important to talk to your vet in advance about prescribed anti-anxiety medications. Do not wait until the last minute to contact your Veterinarian.

For those whose pets have never been on any kind of behavior medications for fireworks and thunderstorms but believe it would be beneficial:

Make an appointment with your veterinarian NOW to discuss the possibility of calming medications to reduce anxiety. Your veterinarian will likely not be able to schedule a visit and prescribe medications in the days leading up to holidays like the 4th of July, so it's important to get started early.

In addition to prescribed medications you can also use ADAPTIL collars, sprays and diffusers. ADAPTIL helps your dog feel calm and comfortable by mimicking a mother’s natural nursing pheromones.

Another calming supplement is Solliquin a tablet or chew for dogs and cats to help support normal behavior and facilitate a calming effect. One of the few behavoir supplements with a Veterinarian Study behind it.

Keep them home, secure and safe on the 4th 🐾

14/06/2024

June 29th is our next Pet Food Distribution at First Congregational UCC of Lowell
865 Lincoln Lake Ave SE, Lowell, Mi 49331

Time: 9 - 11am or until supplies run out, first come first serve.

■ Remain in your car, our volunteers will direct you and load pet food in to your vehicle. This is a drive up distribution.

■ Pet food assistance is for families in need who have pets. This is not a resource for pet food for individuals fostering for rescue organizations or for rescues or for animals available for adoption. It is also not for breeders.

■ There will be a table with other pet supplies and accessories. You must go through the line for pet food FIRST. After you recieve pet food, park your car to shop at the table. There will be limits on items per household. Let's make sure we are providing the chance for other families to also pick up pet supplies and needed accessories.

■ If you are bringing donations for Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance mobile pet food bank please inform a volunteer when you arrive and we will direct you to a location to drop off.

■ If you are in need of other resources, information or assistance for your pets please write down your contact information and what resources/information/assistance you are in need of on a piece of paper and provide that to a volunteer. A volunteer will follow up with a call or email on your pets needs within 5-7 days.

For any other questions or inquiries please email [email protected]

13/06/2024

Friends we need your help!

On July 2nd we will be transporting 30 dogs to the BISSELL Pet Foundation Fix The Future Spay and Neuter Event.

We are using vans to transport dogs and are in need of Medium, Large and Extra Large Airline Crates to transport the dogs.

We need sizes to transport dogs 50 - 75 lbs in size.

Do you have one you are no longer in need of you can donate?

If so please email [email protected]

See photo for reference.

12/06/2024

✨Appreciation post!✨

GRPBA volunteer, Mandi, stopped in for lunch at B.C. Pizza Lowell and found our bin overflowing. 🙏🏼

A huge THANK YOU to all who have donated and also to B.C Pizza of Lowell for being such an awesome donation location partner. 🍕🐾

All donations collected in Lowell will stay in Lowell. Pet food, toys, treats, leashes and collars will be distributed at our next GRPBA Mobile Pet Food Distribution on Saturday, June 29th from 9-11 (or we run out).

THANK YOU 🐶 THANK YOU 🐱

12/06/2024

We wanted to take a moment to clear up some confusion, we have received several request recently to take dogs into our care. We would like to clarify we are not a rescue organization we are an advocacy and outreach organization. We Cannot take animals in to our care. We are not a shelter. We are not a rescue. We do not take animals in and we do not adopt animals out.

We provide assistance to help families facing hardships keep their existing pets. We are also not here as a resource for those already struggling financially to add pets or get puppies and kittens, then ask us to help with veterinary care and food. We have also been getting those request a lot lately.

We are not a resource for breeders.

Spay and neuter of all pets is a requirement for assistance which we will help with if cost is a barrier. This is not up for negotiation. We want to stop the overpopulation of homeless pets and that is done by stopping reproduction.

We can assist with self supported pet rehoming, meaning pet parents re-home their pets directly when there are no other options for keeping their pets. GRPBA volunteers will assist and guide families to safely re-home their pets. Understand this is not something we can assist with only days notice, this takes time.

Starting the process needs to begin weeks and even months in advance. We cannot help if you contact us stating you need to re-home your pet by the following day or even a week. There are pets in rescue and shelters for months waiting to be adopted, it takes time. Don't wait until the last minute to reach out, we are all in a critical time in animal welfare as shelters and rescues are at capacity daily and simply have no room. Contacting them last minute to take your pet is not an option.

Please also understand Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance is a non-profit organization run completely by volunteers, there is no paid staff. Every one contributes to GRPBA and serving our community in their free time, we ask everyone to please be understanding and respectful of this.

This work is not easy and for some of us it is an additional 20 -30 hours a week on top of our own full time employment. We believe in our mission and want to help our community, the people, the pets, and our fellow animal welfare organizations who are stretched beyond their means. We are all doing the best we can in a very difficult time.

10/06/2024

Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance was donated 1000s of lbs of pet food to our pet food bank from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous 🙏🏽

We told them we would like to share this generous donation with other pet food banks and pet outreach organizations in West Michigan.

So today our amazing volunteer Tom picked up all the food and headed over to our pet support center where all animal welfare organizations met up and worked together helping each other load trucks and vans up for each others pet food assistance programs Humane Society of West Michigan Pleasant Hearts Pet Food Pantry Operation Solo and North Kent Kibble ♥️

Each one of these organizations operate a pet food bank serving people and their pets in West Michigan. The need for pet food continues to increase and many of these organizations continue to have bare shelves after a distribution.

Consider a donation of pet food or a monetary donation to any of these amazing organizations working hard to keep pets with their families and making sure no one in a home goes hungry or is giving up their meal in order to keep pets fed.

Collaboration at work and all part of the West Michigan Pet Outreach Network ❤️

08/06/2024

Friends we are canceling our Drink and Learn event at Harmony Brewing Company due to rain forecasted during the event.

This was a dog friendly event on the patio and we made the call to cancel and reschedule for June 29th, more details to come and updates in the event.

We thank you for your understanding 🙏🏽

07/06/2024

Adopt Millie!!!

Meet her at the Kent County Animal Shelter

06/06/2024

Grand Rapids Pitbull Alliance is excited to announce that we are participating in the BISSELL Pet Foundation Fix The Future Spay and Neuter Event the end of this month!

What does this mean to the community?

We are a partner organization that will sign owned pets up for free spay and neuter surgeries provided by Bissell Pet Foundation.

We are serving Grand Rapids and will be transporting these pets to and from their appointments. *A drop off location is to be determined.

Currently we are only focusing on Dog spay and neuter surgeries which will be held on July 2nd.

We will set up a location for pet parents to drop off and then pick up their pets. The location will be in Southeast Grand Rapids.

If you have a working airline carrier to put your dog in plan on bringing it.

You must sign up by June 20th, 2024!
Space is limited!!

How to sign up:

Email [email protected]

Or

Call the GRPBA phone # 616-710-1068 (you will have to leave a voicemail, a volunteer will return your call)

Provide the following information via email or voicemail (required)

Pet parent information:
•First and Last Name
•Phone number
•Email (if applicable)

For each Dog:
•Dog(s) name
•Dog age
•Dog weight
•Dog gender
•Dog breed

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

●Aggressive animals will not be accepted.

●We cannot service dogs over 75lbs at these clinics.

●We cannot service pets over 10 years of age.

●We cannot service Brachycephalic Dogs at these clinics (English and French bulldogs, bull mastiffs, Boston Terriers, Pugs, and Pekingese)

●Patients must be older than 8 weeks and/or 2lbs to be eligible for surgery.

●If a female dog/cat has recently had a litter, the young must be weaned.

●Adult pets: All pets older than four months should not be given food after midnight the night before surgery. Any patient who has ingested food on the day of surgery will be rejected. You may offer your pet water prior to surgery.

●Pediatric pets: On the same day of surgery, until 6:00 in the morning, water and food can be provided to all pets four months of age or less. This will prevent their blood sugar levels from falling.

PLEASE EMAIL OR CALL TO SIGN UP.

DO NOT USE FACEBOOK MESSENGER TO SIGN UP.

THIS ACCOUNT IS RUN BY VOLUNTEERS WHO ARE NOT LOGGED IN CONTINUOUSLY. FB MESSENGER IS NOT A RELIABLE FORM OF COMMUNICATION FOR GRPBA.

05/06/2024

Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance is holding our annual Pride T-shirt fundraiser in honor of Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈

**Check out the 2024 design for GRPBA Pride**

Artwork by our amazing friend Aaron McCall dot net ❤️

This year Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance has chosen local non-profit Prism Pathway. GRPBA will be donating 50% of the proceeds from our Pride Shirts to Prism Pathway 🏳️‍🌈

Prism Pathway is a local non-profit organization dedicated to providing a healthy space for LGBTQ+ individuals, their families, and friends to find community, receive education, and pursue advocacy efforts in a small-town setting.

We also encourage direct donations to the Prism Pathway through their website :

https://www.prismpathway.org/support-us

These Pawsome shirts will be available for sale Saturday, June 22nd at the Grand Rapids Pride Festival in limited quantities!

04/06/2024

What an amazing weekend celebrating at Lowell Pride 🏳️‍🌈

We enjoyed meeting new friends and seeing some old ones this weekend ♥️ Hank was a superstar loving meeting everyone!

Thank you Lowell Pride for yet another beautiful Pride Weekend! We believe everyday should feel like Pride with love, beauty, kindness and support 🏳️‍🌈♥️

We can't wait to continue celebrating at Grand Rapids Pride on June 22, please stop by our booth for fun, hugs, games and more!

02/06/2024

This is not the update I wanted to share

P**p was declining, his dad made the decision to help P**p cross the rainbow bridge 🌈

This is hitting hard as it's the first pet we have lost we were trying to help with life saving veterinary care.

I wish we had the funds to pay for the surgery at AEH on Friday but we didn't and despite all efforts over the years to create a built up fund with money to access in these emergency situations, all attempts have been unsuccessful.

Sadly as a outreach organization we are not eligible for many grants that exist for veterinary care. Most grants for organizations who adopt animals out which is not what we do. We focus on keeping pets in their homes and keeping them out of shelters and rescues altogether.

Non profit pet outreach programs and organizations continue to develop all over the nation doing amazing work and making a positive impact but the reality is pet outreach groups like us are often left out when it comes to grants and funding. Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance is a group of 37 individuals, 37 volunteers working to keep pets with their families and being as creative as possible with fundraising efforts within our abilities.

So this leaves me thinking what do we do?

Do we eliminate emergency veterinary care assistance for those in need altogether? Are we creating a false sense of hope? This is something I never want us to do and we never promise on areas we cannot provide.

Do we continue with more small fundraising efforts to build up that fund?

Do we move forward with the very involved process of a large fundraising event? Do we have enough people able to volunteer to put a event together? A 6-8 month planning commitment. We have not done any large event fundraising and the answer is partly our team is to busy and focused on providing assistance with on going and in the immediate outreach needs. We are a jump to action kind of organization as pet outreach is unpredictable and many of us put 20-30 volunteer hours a week in on outreach on top of our own personal employment and personal lives.

I don't know the answer and it's something I'm going to think on this week a lot. My heart is very heavy for P**ps dad.

A dear outreach mentor Rachel B of Dog Aide told me earlier this year with pet outreach:

"you have very high highs and very low lows"

This is all to true and something I am always reminding myself.

Earlier this week I was celebrating a shelter diversion success of a former LT KCAS Pup who's family reached out about rehoming assistance with GRPBA due to behavior related issues. After a long and wonderful conversation on exercises, consulting with a Veterinarian on medications and more enrichment his family was excited and eager to work on different things so they can keep him which is really what they want more then anything! That was a high high! One dog staying with his family ❤️

Today is a low low trying to process and think what else we could have done for P**p and how we can provide in areas better in the future.

While we are ending the fundraiser we want to thank all that have donated ❤️

We also want to let you to honor P**p we are dedicating the funds raised to purchase Kitten Milk Replacer and Kitten Pate for the influx of orphan kittens who continue to enter the Kent County Animal Shelter, currently there is very little supply of Kitten Milk Replacer which is vital to keeping these kittens alive and thriving.

If you can please consider a donation of KMR Kitten Milk Replacer to the Kent County Animal Shelter in honor of P**p the Kitty. There is a donation bin you can leave it at the main entrance of the shelter, drop off during the shelters regular business hours.

Rest easy sweet P**p 🌈

31/05/2024

Kent County Animal Shelter is in need of KITTEN FOSTER HOMES!!!!

I tried sharing the original post by KCAS but Facebook is doing some weird stuff so the post won't show as shared, not helpful when we need people to see, read and share the ask!

I'm sharing screen shots of the post, go directly to the Kent County Animal Shelter page to see it in its entirety.

29/05/2024

Hunky Adoptable Puppy Alert! 😍

Contact Michigan Pit Bull Education Project for information.

Ok, mister perfect is officially up for adoption.
* Great with dogs, cats and all people.
* 6 months old, housetrained, neutered, vaccinated, and microchipped.
Carbon is already a big boy at 6 months.
$250 adoption fee.
Text Terry for a questionnaire at 248 931 3442.
Carbon gets excited, so no children under age 5.
Currently fostered in Canton Mi.
Michigan Pit Bull Education Project

29/05/2024

We wanted to share a recent outreach case that is actually a very common ask.

We were contacted by a social worker with the Grand Rapids Housing Commision in regards to a current tenant who is preparing to move. The location to where she is moving did indicate they would allow her cat however that the cat needed to be updated on vaccines in order to move in. This individual is on a fixed/limited income, the cost to pay for vaccines was not within her means. She spoke with the social worker about this difficulty worried she would have to surrender her beloved kitty of 7 years.

We want to note this is not someone who recieves monthly food and supply assistance from GRPBA. This pet parent takes care of those needs on her own, however a larger sum of money at one time in the midst of moving and the expenses that go along with moving was not something she could do.

Fortunately the social worker had learned of GRPBA (some other tenants are in our outreach programs) they reached out to us asking if there was anything we could do. We said Absolutely! We will pay for the needed vaccines to keep these two together. During the communication back and forth we also learned that the cat was not spayed, we were able to work with CSNIP to get the cat in for vaccines and a spay all at once!

This kitty was also the first to be spayed with funds from our most recent Spay and Neuter Tshirt fundraiser ❤️

We are happy everything worked out and there was enough time between contacting us and the move in date to get the the kitty spayed and vaccinated.

This is a very common request, folks moving into rental housing and in order for their pets to move in with them vaccines need to be up to date and dogs need to be licensed. While we can help with cost for those who qualify we cannot always guarantee appointments available in time of move in. Appointment availability is pending the veterinarians and clinics we work with who are often booked far in advance. So PLEASE remember if you are moving or preparing to move with your pets to take these things into consideration and prepare ahead of time in order to secure an appointment before your move in date. If you need assistance that will factor in a bit more time and if the pet is not spayed or neutered then add even more time.

•A requirement of any assistance from Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance is that pets are spayed or neutered or pet parents agree to have their pets spayed and neutered.

28/05/2024

This Saturday June 1st GRPBA will be kicking off Pride Month at Lowell Pride 🏳️‍🌈

Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance is excited to begin the Pride Month celebration back on the Riverwalk for Lowell Pride!

This year, along with offering enrichment toys for your furbabies, GRPBA merchandise and games we will also be collecting pet food and supplies that will stay within and benefit the Lowell community.

Since 2019, GRPBA has been helping over 100 Lowell families every month with a pet food/supply distribution now held at First Congregational UCC of Lowell. Please consider a donation of pet food for our monthly Lowell pet food/supply distribution 🐾

Come on over to our booth and say Hi 👋🏽, learn more about our mission and how you can get involved! Also If you are in need of assistance with your pets please stop by so we can talk about ways GRPBA can help you.

• Stay tuned for the debut of our 2024 Pride T-Shirt and this year's chosen LGBTQIA Non-profit organization that GRPBA will be donating 50% of the proceeds too.

27/05/2024

LAST DAY to order a GRPBA S&N T-Shirt!🐾

Unfortunately it doesn't look like we will reach our goal of $800.00

You can still help by purchasing a shirt by 10pm tonight. Once the shirts are printed we will arrange for pickup at our Pet Support Center in Kentwood.

Help support GRPBAs SPAY it Forward program with a really RAD and fun shirt!! All proceeds go directly to help pay for Spay & Neuter surgeries for family pets in our community. A very important step in ending overpopulation of homeless pets.

*These are a Bella Tri-blend shirt available in sizes Small - 3X

You can purchase online via our Square Store, link below:

The proceeds from all sales of the “I am into S&N” T-shirts with the artwork of the amazing Aaron McCall will be directed into the Grand Rapids Pit Bull Alliance SPAY it Forward Fund. This Fund is dedicated solely too assisting with the cost of spay and neuter surgeries for family pets in ou...

25/05/2024