HIGH FIVE VIRGINIA
Connecting Virginia’s Animal Welfare Community to Save More Lives
High Five’s funded-animal total includes animals for whom financial assistance helped address a barrier to transfer, treatment, or placement. It includes most but not every animal networked or connected through the High Five community.
Every week, shelters and rescues across Virginia are searching for safe placement for animals in their care. Other organizations may have room to help, but distance, medical expenses, transportation costs, or the financial impact of accepting a difficult case can prevent that transfer from happening.
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High Five Virginia brings those organizations together and helps remove the barriers standing between an animal in need and a receiving organization ready to say yes.
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Through statewide networking, transfer coordination, and direct financial assistance, High Five helps Virginia’s animal welfare organizations accomplish more together than any one organization could accomplish alone.
HOW WE CAN HELP
A shelter may have a receiving rescue prepared to accept twenty dogs, but no funding for the fuel needed to transport them.
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A rescue may be willing to take an injured animal, but cannot absorb the full cost of medical treatment.
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A large hoarding case may overwhelm the resources of every organization involved.
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High Five steps in to address that gap.
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VFHS administers and moderates a statewide Facebook network where sending shelters and receiving organizations share transfer pleas, available placement, transportation opportunities, and urgent needs. More than 100 animals find transfer commitments through these connections during a typical week.
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Making the connection is only part of the work. High Five also provides direct financial assistance for transportation, medical care, sponsorships, and other expenses that can determine whether a receiving organization is able to say yes.
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When a practical or financial barrier remains, High Five works to help remove it.
LIFESAVING TRANSPORTATION
High Five helps cover fuel and transportation expenses so animals can move from shelters with limited placement options to organizations with the capacity to help them.
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One transportation grant may support the movement of an entire group of animals while also opening critical space at the sending shelter.
Placement Sponsorships
Some animals are harder to place because of their age, medical needs, behavior, or the anticipated cost of their care.
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High Five may provide sponsorship funding to help offset those expenses, giving receiving organizations additional resources and creating a stronger incentive to take on animals who might otherwise be passed over.
Medical and Emergency Assistance
High Five provides financial support when veterinary needs stand in the way of transfer or placement.
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Funding may assist with treatment, diagnostic testing, vaccinations, surgery, or the extraordinary costs associated with medical emergencies and large-scale hoarding cases.
Statewide Coordination
VFHS provides the administrative work that keeps the High Five network active and effective.
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We moderate transfer pleas, connect sending and receiving organizations, share available resources, help identify possible placement, and support the relationships that make statewide collaboration possible.
ONE GIFT STRENGTHENS AN ENTIRE NETWORK
DONATE TOWARD THE WORK OF HIGH FIVE VA
GROWING IMPACT
High Five’s growth reflects more than an increase in animals served. It represents a stronger statewide network, deeper collaboration between sending and receiving organizations, and greater capacity to respond when transportation, medical costs, or other barriers threaten an animal’s opportunity for placement.
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As more organizations participate and more donors invest in the program, High Five is able to turn connections into action, helping thousands of animals reach care, safety, and new opportunities each year.
OUR WORK IN ACTION
FREEDOM RIDES
Each week, High Five helps cover transportation costs for more than 100 animals moving from shelters and rescues across Southwest Virginia. Primarily transported by PAWS of Southwest Virginia and Tri-State Animal Transports, the animals meet multiple receiving organizations in Staunton before continuing on to foster care, medical treatment, and adoption through their new rescues.
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This shared route allows dozens of organizations to work as one coordinated network, moving animals to safety while saving receiving partners from making separate, day-long trips across the state.
Virginia’s Lifesaving Success Is Built on Collaboration
Virginia’s live release rate now hovers around 90%, placing the Commonwealth among the nation’s leaders in lifesaving. That progress is not the work of one shelter, rescue, or program; it is the result of organizations across Virginia sharing space, transportation, resources, expertise, and responsibility for animals in need.
High Five helps make that collaboration possible. Every week, VFHS members use the network to connect animals with receiving partners, coordinate transfers, and overcome the financial barriers that can prevent a lifesaving commitment from becoming a completed transport.
But this work depends on continued investment. Donations to High Five help fund transportation, medical care, placement sponsorships, and emergency assistance, giving shelters and rescues the support they need to say yes.
Your gift helps turn a connection into a commitment, and a commitment into a safe future.
JOIN THE HIGH FIVE NETWORK
The High Five Facebook group connects Virginia shelters with rescue partners able to provide transfer opportunities for animals in their care.
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The group is intended for:
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Staff of Virginia municipal shelters, particularly those involved in intake, placement, or rescue-transfer decisions
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Representatives of rescue organizations who have the authority to accept animals for transfer from Virginia shelters
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Qualified receiving organizations located either within Virginia or in other states
To keep the group focused on Virginia’s animals, transfer pleas may only be posted for animals currently in Virginia shelters or animal welfare organizations. Out-of-state rescues are welcome to join as receiving partners, but transfer requests for animals located outside Virginia are not permitted.