We work to improve the lives of companion animals in East Contra Costa County through educational workshops, adoption events, and collaboration with other community groups.

Description:
We are a non-profit organization run totally by an all volunteer group of dedicated people. One of our goals is to give our rescued dogs and cats a second chance in life to have a loving home. Our vision is shelters will no longer find it necessary to euthanize healthy, tame, adoptable dogs and cats. We are working to educate families and school children of the need to spay/neuter their pets, and teach them basic care of their pets. Through the education and information we provide we hope to eliminate the dumping/abandonment of pets along roads and other places as well as reduce the population of feral cats in East Contra Costa County through various spay/neuter projects.

History:
HALO was founded in May of 2000 by a group of people who had previously been working in the dog and cat life-saving field. HALO has worked with many shelters throughout the state, and has successfully rescued and adopted out many dogs and cats; the total is estimated at around 2200, in six years. We are growing, and have approximately 100 volunteers as well as the support of the local communities.
In addition to adoption events, we coordinate various fund raisers and activities throughout the year. Our goal is to more than double our number of volunteers. This will allow us to help many more dogs and cats through rescuing from shelters and taking in strays or abandoned pets as well helping more families find homes for pets they are unable to keep for various reasons. We have recently added a Therapy Dog program, and are working to get the reading dog component of it into the libraries and schools in order to help improve the reading scores of students who have difficulties reading.

Contact people:

Verlene Leonardo, President, (925) 752-3353, (email) Joyce Sanderson, Dog Program Mgr./Director, (925) 679-0667, (email)

Address:

P.O. Box 2011 Antioch, CA 94531

Web Site: http://www.eccchalo.org