Incorporated in 2003, we are a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to providing loving homes to unwanted, neglected, and abandoned dogs from high-kill shelters in the south. Rather than referring to myself or others as “owners” of animals we share our lives with, I now refer to myself and others as “guardians” of our animal friends and to animals as “he” or “she” rather than “it.” Guardians d
o not buy or sell animals; instead, they rescue and adopt. The Guardian Campaign Goals:
• To create a higher level of respect, responsibility and compassion toward other beings by encouraging those who share their lives with animals to consider themselves guardians of companions, rather than owners of property, objects, and things.
• To acknowledge through this verbal change the deep bond that forms between people and their animal companions.
• To recognize animal guardians who provide their companions a safe, healthy, and loving environment and their animal companions.
• To raise a new generation of children who have strongly internalized these ideals, and who will in turn better serve their communities as responsible guardians and citizens.
• To reconnect neighborhoods by restoring the values of empathy, protection, care and consideration toward family members, neighbors, children and animals in each community.
• To accomplish an historical shift toward a more humane public standard regarding animals by incorporating the term animal guardians into local and state ordinances.
• To render animal abuse, neglect, and abandonment socially unacceptable with the following desired results: A sustained reduction in the number of animals bred and sold for profit.
◦ A sustained reduction in the number of animals killed in shelters.
◦ An increase in the number of animals rescued and adopted into good homes.
◦ An improved system of cross-reporting of child and animal abuse and neglect.
