Areas classified as rural in this data represent 10% of the United States population. Yet those areas only received 2%(!) of funds. In fact, micropolitan areas represented less of the total population but still received more grant funding than rural areas! Whatever the well-intended reasoning behind current funding priorities, it is leaving a large group of pets and people behind. This has been persistent and systemic and needs to change.

The pets and people of rural America are suffering, and the way the economy is trending, that suffering will only increase. Much of rural America has no animal welfare infrastructure, and the existing infrastructure is increasingly fragile. Animal welfare grantmakers and support organizations must stop treating rural America like its better-developed urban and suburban siblings. Equity demands a more significant investment in rural America and must be done at the ground level.

Animal services are human services. While some pioneers have been approaching domestic animal welfare that way for years, it's only relatively recently that the broader sector has begun to approach our work from the perspective of the people impacted.