Pets Are Family 🐾
No family should have to choose between rent and a sick pet. Here’s a practical, low-cost plan to help working families, seniors and veterans keep their pets healthy, with no new general tax.
Write your legislator I need help right nowNeed help right now?
🔎 Pet is lost
Make a free printable flyer and share-ready post in about a minute, plus a list of where finders look. Free Lost Pet Flyer Maker →
💛 Help paying a vet bill
These nonprofits help families who can’t cover urgent care. Most need your vet’s diagnosis and estimate, so ask your vet for both first: RedRover Relief, The Pet Fund, Brown Dog Foundation, Paws 4 A Cure, Frankie’s Friends. More: Humane World for Animals’ list.
🎗️ Pet cancer
Live Like Roo gives grants to families whose dog or cat has a cancer diagnosis (their Maggie’s FRIENDS program is for cats). Veterinary school hospitals, like UC Davis, may offer clinical trials. Ask your vet for a referral.
📋 Pet insurance, in plain English
Most plans pay you back after you pay the vet, and almost all exclude conditions your pet already has, so it works best when bought while your pet is healthy. California law requires insurers to spell out pre-existing-condition exclusions, waiting periods, deductibles and limits before you buy (Ins. Code §12880). Read those sections first.
Next time, a collar with an AirTag pocket can help you find them faster: Find-Me Collars.
The plan we’re asking California to pass
- Let shelters and nonprofit clinics treat sick and injured pets of income-qualified families. Washington did this in 2019. Its bill passed the House 77–18 (bill report).
- Pay for it with a small registration fee on pet food brands. No new general tax. Maryland, Maine and West Virginia already fund low-cost spay/neuter this way.
- Run it through local shelters and nonprofit clinics, not a new state bureaucracy.
- Recognize household pets as companion animals. This is a narrow legal category for pets that live in the home, written so it doesn’t touch livestock, farming or ranching. California already took a first step in 2019, when courts began weighing a pet’s care in divorces instead of splitting pets like furniture (AB 2274).
Why people on every side can support it
💵 Responsible spending
No new general tax, paid for by a fee on pet food brands. Run by local nonprofits, with a five-year sunset unless it proves itself.
🤝 Fairness
Whether a pet gets treated shouldn’t depend on the owner’s paycheck. Seniors on fixed incomes and veterans feel this most.
🏡 Family
Most of us treat our pets like family. Kids shouldn’t lose a pet over a bill that a small, well-run program could have covered.
Built-in protection against fraud, waste and abuse
Every tax dollar should reach a real pet’s real care. The proposal closes the usual gaps up front:
✅ No new paperwork to game
Families already verified for Medi-Cal, CalFresh or SSI qualify automatically.
🏥 Money goes to the clinic
Payment goes straight to the treating clinic. No cash ever goes to owners.
📏 Caps and a covered-care list
Up to $2,000 per pet per year, and a defined list sets what care is covered.
🔍 Registered, audited clinics
Participating clinics register with the program and can be audited.
📊 Public spending dashboard
Anyone can see where every dollar went.
⏳ Five-year sunset
The program ends unless results are shown and lawmakers renew it.
What we know
of low-income pet owners surveyed by the Humane Society for Southwest Washington said they would leave a pet’s health problem untreated because they couldn’t pay. 46% would have to borrow money. Source: WA House bill report, SSB 5004 (2019)
dogs and cats spayed or neutered in West Virginia from 2018 to 2025, paid for by a registration fee on pet food sold in the state. Source: WV Dept. of Agriculture
is the year Maryland began funding spay/neuter grants with a per-product fee on registered dog and cat food. Source: MD fiscal note, SB 820
per pet food product: Maine’s surcharge that feeds its Companion Animal Sterilization Fund. Source: Maine Public Law ch. 263
Not in California? This works in any state
Nothing here is unique to California. Every piece has already passed somewhere:
1. Let shelters treat
Washington lets shelters and nonprofit clinics treat sick and injured pets of income-qualified families (SSB 5004, 2019).
2. Fund it without a new tax
Maryland, Maine and West Virginia fund pet programs with a registration fee on pet food brands. Any state can use the same tool.
3. Same guardrails
Eligibility through Medicaid or SNAP, payment straight to clinics, per-pet caps, audits, public spending and a sunset.
🇺🇸 In Congress: the PAW Act (H.R. 1842)
A bipartisan bill from Reps. Deborah Ross (D-NC) and Claudia Tenney (R-NY). It would let families use HSA and FSA money for vet care or pet insurance, up to $1,000 a year per pet and unlimited for service animals (bill text). Ask your U.S. Representative to co-sponsor it.
Pick your state or Congress in the letter tool below, and it writes the right letter and links the right lookup.
Write your legislator (2 minutes)
California bills for the 2027 session are introduced in January and February, and most states start their sessions in January too, so letters this fall are how a bill gets an author. Fill in your details and the letter updates. Edit anything you like.
The official lookup lists your Assemblymember and State Senator, each with a contact form. Paste your letter into both. Your letter stays on your device, and we only count that one was copied.
Lawmakers and candidates who support it
No lawmakers have signed on yet. Your letter is how that changes. We’ll list every supporter here, from any party.
Stories from California families
Share your story
Stories are read by a person before they appear.
Shelters, vets and local businesses on board
Be the first organization to add your name.
Add your organization
Questions people ask
Who pays for it?
Pet food companies, through a small registration fee on each brand sold in California, the same way Maryland, Maine and West Virginia fund spay/neuter. No new general tax. California doesn’t register pet food product by product today (it licenses facilities), so the bill would create that registration.
How much would it add to pet food prices?
Pennies. The fee is charged to the brand once a year for each product, not on every bag. Maryland collects about $966,000 a year from 8,661 dog and cat food products (fiscal note). Americans spent $68.3 billion on pet food in 2025 (APPA), so California’s share is roughly $7.9 billion a year if spending follows population. Using a similar product count:
| Fee per product, per year | Yearly fund | Added to a $50 bag | Pets helped if every case used the full $2,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | ~$4.4 million | ~3¢ | ~2,000 |
| $1,000 | ~$8.7 million | ~5½¢ | ~3,900 |
| $2,000 | ~$17.4 million | ~11¢ | ~7,800 |
These are our estimates, not official figures. Pet counts assume 10% for administration, and most visits will cost far less than the $2,000 cap, so more pets would be helped in practice. Brands decide how much of the fee reaches the shelf price.
Won’t people abuse it?
The design makes that hard. Eligibility comes from programs that already verify income (Medi-Cal, CalFresh, SSI). Money only goes to registered clinics, never to owners. Each pet has a yearly cap of up to $2,000, clinics can be audited, spending is public, and the program sunsets unless it’s renewed.
Does this hurt local vets?
It’s aimed at families who couldn’t pay for care at all, so those pets were going untreated, surrendered or euthanized rather than seen. Private clinics can register as providers and be paid for the care. When Washington passed its version, the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association testified in support and no one testified against (Senate bill report).
Is this a new government program?
It’s a small, capped fund run through the shelters and nonprofit clinics we already have, with a built-in end date unless it proves itself.
Would “companion animal” status affect farms or ranches?
No. The ask is for a narrow category for household pets only, written to leave livestock and agriculture untouched.
Who runs this page?
Good Food Good Feels, a small California business. We’re not a government agency, a political committee or a charity. We take no donations here. We care about pets, and we built the free Lost Pet Flyer Maker too. Questions: (805) 222-6545.
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