Our Mission
Prince William Animal Advocates is a non-profit organization that was formed in 2020 to support the programs of the Prince William County Animal Shelter.
Our Vision
OUR VISION is for all adoptable animals at Prince William County Animal Shelter to find a loving home. PWAA is dedicated to ensuring dignity and quality of life for all animals in Prince William County and to the well-being and adoption of animals at the Prince William County Shelter.
PWAA’s function is to financially assist in providing the care necessary to ensure they are as healthy as possible when adopted, support the Shelter volunteers, and promote pet health, spay/neuter services, and education through community outreach.
Our Story
In the summer of 2019, as the dog walking program at the Prince William County Animal Shelter was getting underway, a few of its participants were looking for ways to do more to spotlight the dogs – help network them, get them noticed. They knew Dave’s Dogs, a local food truck that donates all of its tips towards helping hard to adopt shelter animals find new homes, had a far reach and an army of supporters. And luckily one of them knew Karen, Dave’s sister, who manages his shelter initiative.
The collaboration organically grew into a team of like-minded friends that was continually passing around a hat to take up funds for sponsoring animals of all kinds, getting them the veterinary care to make them more adoptable and in some cases raising money for life-saving treatments. What we noticed is what made us different – six days a week there is at least one of us at the shelter meeting new animals and figuring out how to get them into their forever homes faster. We are kitten and cat fosters, puppy and dog fosters, fundraisers, pet owners, dog walkers, and street kitty rescuers, but most of all we are advocates.
In the summer of 2019, as the dog walking program at the Prince William County Animal Shelter was getting underway, a few of its participants were looking for ways to do more to spotlight the dogs – help network them, get them noticed. They knew Dave’s Dogs, a local food truck that donates all of its tips towards helping hard to adopt shelter animals find new homes, had a far reach and an army of supporters. And luckily one of them knew Karen, Dave’s sister, who manages his shelter initiative.
With these various roles comes more ideas about improving the lives of animals in all areas of the shelter’s care and throughout all stages of their adoption journey, from providing supplies for a new puppy foster program to paying for neuters so that long term residents can go home the same day they are adopted, making them more attractive. And so we were inspired to use our ideas and insights to make our collaboration a non-profit dedicated to supporting the Prince William County Animal Shelter and its animals.
Meet the Team
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Natalie Huls
Executive Director, Treasurer
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Patricia Hiltibidal
Chair, Secretary
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Karen Gray Edwards
Board member
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Michael Donnelly
Board member
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Karen Proctor
Board member