Author: SPCAI Staff

By Team Lemonade

As a company with a mission to transform insurance into a social good, we regularly ask our Lemonade community which causes they’re passionate about, and would like to support.

Sounds like a bizarre question coming from an insurance company, we know, but it’s part of how we’re built.

Back to our community. They spoke, and we listened. Our Lemonaders expressed their passion for animal rights, which sparked a search high and wide for an animal rescue organization.

We were looking for an organization that measured its impact: data-driven, knew how to communicate proven results, and most of all, was committed to transparency, one of our core values.

When we found SPCA International, we knew we found the right fit for our Giveback program (more on that soon).

Partnering with SPCAI is part of our journey to fix the broken insurance system. A system that, for centuries, wanted to protect you when things went wrong, but often breeded a feeling of distrust, and put you through hurdles that left you stranded.

So beyond bringing insurance into the 21st century through technology (we use algorithms instead of paperwork, bots instead of brokers!), we transformed the very fundamental business model to remove any conflicts of interests, and include giving back.

Instead of making money from denying claims, which is the norm within the industry, we treat your premiums as if it’s your money, take a flat fee for our services, and return what’s left to a cause you care about. We call this the ‘Giveback.’

Rest assured, this isn’t marketing fluff. Lemonade is a B-Corp, which means we’re committed to a double bottom line. In fact, Giveback is an integral part of our business model, and since we’re driven by a community-focused and do-good culture, Giveback is just one way we’re committed to the public good.

This is why we’re so excited to announce the Lemonade <> SPCA International partnership. We’re thrilled to welcome such a devoted and impactful organization such as SPCAI, who have helped thousands of animals around the world. And we’re humbled this wonderful cause is welcoming us to their community, with open arms.

So, how does the Lemonade Giveback work?

When you get a Lemonade renters or homeowners insurance policy, we ask you to choose your ‘Giveback’ cause. People choosing the same cause form a ‘virtual group;' behind the scenes, we use their premiums to pay their claims, and Giveback any leftover money to their common cause (in this case, the SPCAI).

We think of Giveback as a social contract among our community, where the size and allocation of our donation is determined not by our big profits or big hearts, but by the good fortune and good behavior of our members.

For us, Team Lemonade, this is deeply gratifying. At the end of the day, ‘it’s not our money.' It’s money our community has entrusted to us, first and foremost to help our members recover from unfortunate events in their lives, and secondly to help the less fortunate in our broader community. We feel privileged to do both – and are grateful to our community for the trust and support. 

Stay safe, and thank you for supporting SPCAI!

Sign up for Lemonade Renters Insurance and support SPCA international today!

When Angela Cherry, a veterinary technician by training, visited the Yucatan Peninsula, she was appalled by the horrific state of the animals she saw. Angela couldn't ignore their plight, so she founded Helping Paws Across Borders to provide much needed medical attention, including spay and neuter services, for animals in Latin American and Caribbean countries. 

The model is simple but impactful. US-based veterinarians and vet techs collect supplies and volunteer their time to provide quality medical care to animals in impoverished areas at no cost. By providing routine care, major surgeries, spay and neuter services, and education, Helping Paws Across Borders is making life less painful for suffering animals, reducing animal overpopulation, and helping people learn how to provide a healthy life for their pets. Their ultimate goal: stop animal neglect and abuse. 

Helping Paws Across Borders has held events in Mexico, the Bahamas, Belize, Honduras, and New Mexico. This year, they are partnering with over 20 other organizations on a Spayathon for Puerto Rico. The goal is to spay and neuter 20,000 animals by 2019.  

*In addition to all this amazing work, Helping Paws Across Borders is also partnering with SPCAI and CFF this month on the Dogs of Chernobyl project in Ukraine.

When U.S. soldiers stationed in Africa contact us for help bringing their adopted pets home, things can get tricky. Many countries have no local animal welfare organization, and animals are often at risk of being killed if they are left behind.

This is certainly the case for Somalia and Cameroon – they are dangerous places for soldiers and dangerous places for dogs. Two service members are working with us right now to get their puppy battle buddies home to the U.S. It won't be easy, but our Operation Baghdad Pups: Worldwide partners in Uganda and Nigeria should be able to get these dogs out of Africa. They'll cross several international borders, multiple checkpoints, and endure days of travel, but will be happily reunited in the end. 

One of the soldiers tells us that she can't imagine life without her dog, Annie. She knows in her heart that they were brought together for a reason- to live a happy and healthy life together. The soldier may have saved Annie's life, but Annie has made the soldier's life richer in so many ways. The soldier has been saving up leave from her deployments and is planning to take six months off work to rebuild her bond with Annie when they are back in the US. 

The soldier tells us, from the day Annie crawled out from under her truck, hot, thirsty and hungry, they have hardly been apart. Annie rises with the sun, loves hardboiled eggs for breakfast, shadows the team throughout the day, takes rides in the truck whenever she can, cuddles everyone in the unit, and snuggles down for bed in a bunker every night.  

SPCA International is honored to help this pair stay together. 

In the Chernobyl Nuclear Exclusion Zone, it is almost unheard of to see a dog over four years old. The 1,000 animals here live a precarious life amid the bears and wolves of the forest. If they are lucky, a compassionate power plant worker will shelter and feed them through the worst months of the winter.

That's right, despite what many people think, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is still up and running with over 3,000 employees. These workers do what they can for the dogs (250 dogs live right at the plant), but until now, they have been prohibited from removing any animals from the area. 

Thanks to SPCA International's partner organization Clean Futures Fund (CFF), some of these dogs now have hope for a life with a loving family. Through radiation tracking ear tags, CFF has determined that the dogs have extremely low levels of radiation and are safe for adoption. With your help, we are sponsoring the first 15 puppy adoptions out of the Exclusion Zone.

Each of these 15 cuddly puppies will have safe radiation levels, be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and de-wormed. They will be quarantined for a minimum of 30 days before they go home to a loving family in the Ukraine or elsewhere. If you are interested in adopting one of these dogs, please email [email protected].

The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster forced 120,000 people to evacuate their homes. They were only allowed to bring what they could carry, and many families had no choice but to leave behind beloved family pets. Once these pets were considered contaminated, people were prohibited from removing them from the Exclusion Zone.

Today, the Exclusion Zone still exists. Access is highly restricted, and no one lives there except wild animals and an estimated 1,000 dogs and cats (including 250 stray dogs living at the plant) who are descendants of family pets left behind during the evacuation. Over 3,000 people still work at this active power plant and try to provide shelter and food for the animals during harsh winters.

The fear of radiation from contaminated animals led the Ukrainian government to send soldiers to shoot these animals in an attempt to control their population. This inhumane policy was ineffective at curbing animal population growth.

SPCA International and Clean Futures Fund are working with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the Ukrainian government on a widescale spay and neuter campaign. The first clinic was held in August 2017, when over 340 animals were spayed or neutered, vaccinated, de-wormed, and given dosimeter ear tags to measure their radiation levels.

This June, our goal is to reach the remaining animals in the Exclusion Zone.  We have planned a month-long campaign with Clean Futures Fund and over 100 volunteers to make this a reality. Though all of our volunteers are paying for their own costs, you can help provide veterinary supplies and vaccines.

In Beirut, shiny pet store windows show off cute, wiggly purebred puppies. Huskies and golden retrievers top the list of popular breeds, and the demand is strong. In a country where pet adoption isn’t the norm, it is common for people to walk right past suffering street dogs and into a shop to find the next furry addition to their family- all too often that cute puppy finds themself in the street dog’s position just several months later.

We just returned from a visit to our partner, BETA (Beirut Ethical Treatment of Animals), where they are working to rescue dogs off the street and are encouraging people to adopt one of the thousands of Beirut dogs in need of a home. 

BETA staff gave us a tour of their beautiful open-air hillside shelter where they house nearly 700 dogs. Dogs are housed in large runs shared with other dogs of similar size and temperament, and are let out in groups each day to run free in nature. We were concerned that dogs might not return, but staff assured us they always come back to the safety and security of BETA’s shelter where they know they will be fed and cared for.

We were thrilled to see the work of BETA first hand, but that wasn’t the reason for our trip. We were there to pick up our most recent group of Operation Baghdad Pups: Worldwide rescues! We are so grateful to BETA for providing a safe haven for these dogs on their long journey between Iraq and their soldiers’ homes in the US. BETA has dogs available for adoption in Beirut and also for families in the United States and Canada. You can help be part of the solution by giving a once neglected and starving Beirut street animal a home today!