About Us
Pawmetto Lifeline is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit animal rescue organization located in Columbia, SC, solving pet overpopulation in the Midlands.
Pawmetto Lifeline is completely dependent on private gifts from individuals and foundations, as well as, revenue generating services that allow us to provide medical services for the homeless pets we rescue in our community. (Many of those pets require extensive medical services once they are in our care.) We receive NO FUNDS from the government to run our life saving mission. Our organization also invested $1.5 million in the construction and upfitting of the Meyer Finlay Pet Adoption Center and own no part of the building. Richland and Lexington Counties own 100% of the building.
Our Mission
Establish a no-kill community in the Midlands, meaning no healthy, adoptable dog or cat dies because it is homeless.
Our Values
To create a better humanity through education and collaboration by promoting our values of:
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Respect, Justice and Compassion for those in need
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Courage to create change for the betterment of the community
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Collaboration with all like-minded individuals and organizations who strive to achieve a no-kill community
Our History
Founded in 1999 as Project Pet, Pawmetto Lifeline has been the conscience of compassion for the Midlands community and a vital area resource for humane care for our abandoned and homeless pets. Our legacy is devotion to responsible and compassionate care for the homeless animals of our community, and of fostering the animal-human bond. In 2012, we transitioned into our new home on Bower Parkway. We remain dedicated to the core principle that every life is precious and that euthanasia should not be used as a means to control a domesticated population.
Our Plan
Each year, more than 15,000 companion pets enter the municipal systems in Lexington and Richland Counties. More than 7,700 of these pets are euthanized. We have a moral and ethical obligation to care for and to extend the most compassionate and humane solution to the very problem that we have allowed to exist by not spaying and neutering our pets. We are implementing a solid plan employing specific, identified solutions – solutions that have been proven to work in other areas of the country.
Since our founding, we have rescued over 25,000 pets that would have otherwise been put to death. Now that our new home on Bower Parkway – the Meyer-Finlay Pet Adoption Center of Lexington and Richland Counties – is open and operating, we'll be able to do so much more. We will:
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Rescue over 4,000 pets annually that would not have had a chance.
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Spay and neuter up to 17,000 companion pets a year and provide medical services for all of the rescue groups that need to have their pets spayed or neutered.
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Break the cycle that has in the past led to hopelessness for so many helpless pets.
Our Goals
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Create a no-kill community in the South Carolina Midlands so that no healthy (or treatable), adoptable pets are euthanized in municipal shelters
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Develop and execute comprehensive community spay/neuter programs that reach out to all areas
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Increase pet ownership and retention
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Initiate educational programs that define the problem, prioritize the resources, and find the solutions
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Propose and support legislation to protect companion pets
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Find uninformed owners and intervene with appropriate education and assistance before their pets become history
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Develop pet/people therapy programs throughout the community
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Curtail amateur and backyard breeding
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Ensure that every microchipped pet that gets lost finds its way back home
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Develop programs to care for sick and injured companion pets