Street Homeless Companion Animal Assistance Program: For many homeless individuals, pets are their only family. But St. Elizabeth, like most shelters, does not allow guests to bring their animals inside with them. As a result, many individuals choose to continue living on the streets rather than abandon their pets. Realizing this, our Companion Animal program assists these individuals to properly care for their animals, while enhancing their sense of responsibility and connection to society. It provides leashes, harnesses, registration tags and licenses, as well as pays for vaccinations, spaying and neutering, and emergency medical care. This has led to less animal suffering, reduced numbers of unwanted animals being born, less animals running wild on the streets and less interaction with Animal Control and enforcement violations by the homeless population. All funds used are raised specifically for the program from concerned animal advocates.