Our mission

HART's mission is to improve the condition of animals in Western Maryland by:

• Saving the lives of adoptable animals through rescue and transport to areas where they will have a better chance of being adopted.
• Reducing pet overpopulation through low-cost spaying and neutering.
• Building a humane and friendly animal adoption center, where adoptable animals will never have to be euthanized.
• Providing information and education to owners about responsible pet ownership, obedience training and rehabilitation of rescues to reduce the number of relinquished and abandoned animals.

To achieve our mission, HART is raising $1.5 million dollars to build and equip the HART Animal Adoption Center and to provide ancillary services that will ensure the continued operation of the Center by creating a source of income and a permanent endowment. The Center also will create job opportunities and training for county residents interested in animal care, rehabilitation, and rescue and support Garrett County’s efforts to enforce the laws against animal cruelty and neglect.

And vision...

HART's Animal Adoption Center will become a model for compassionate animal rescue and community involvement in saving the lives of companion animals. HART envisions a community where the famous words of Mahatma Gandhi will inspire the efforts of everyone involved in making the center a reality:

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”