A passion for putting pets first — and for staying ahead of the curve — fuels the ASPCA’s innovative strategies, and kept it energized when Katrina-relief efforts, a rebranding campaign and the overhaul of its development department all converged.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“In looking at our logo, we realized that the ‘P’ was our active word,” Sullivan explains. “We’re there for prevention (prevention of cruelty, prevention of accidents), not just for abused and homeless animals, but for animals that you share your life with every day.

“We want to prevent you from having to make the decision to take that dog to a shelter because you can’t get him to stop biting the neighbor. We’re there with behavior tips to prevent that from happening,” she adds. “We called out the ‘P’ in orange so that everyone knew, whether it’s for strays, a purebred, a cat or dog, we don’t care. We’re here to prevent bad things from happening to animals.”