The Wonderful Animals Giving Support (WAGS) program, created in 1999, is the first of its kind for the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project and provides direct services to people infected with HIV or AIDS. Recognizing the positive impact that pets and companion animals provide their owners, the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project created the WAGS program, designed to keep people with HIV or AIDS and their companion animals together.

In 1992, Terri Bauert, a social worker volunteering at a local animal shelter in Greensboro, NC, was dismayed by the number of animals euthanized on a daily basis. Litters of orphaned two-week old puppies and kittens regularly had their brief, fragile lives terminated as the shelter lacked the manpower and facilities to look after these tiny creatures in need of round-the-clock attention. Bauert knew that something had to be done and so she and three friends founded the Animal Rescue and Foster Program (ARFP).

The Lawrence County Humane Society in Louisa, Kentucky was established on December 4, 1990. In 1994, the primarily volunteer run organization was able to expand from a foster care network to opening the only animal care facility in their community. Most of the animals in the shelter have been abandoned or found roaming the streets.

Adult cats are often over looked in shelters, the cute playful kittens are usually chosen first, leaving the adult cats to an almost certain death. Throw in a cat that requires additional treatment and care and that cat has almost no chance of ever being adopted. Most shelters will euthanize a cat if it is deemed unadoptable based on health, temperament and space restraints. In 2005, Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary in Saint Pauls, North Carolina opened their doors to blind cats from all over the country, giving them a deserving second chance at life.