Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) is a nonprofit organization founded by Elaine and

Tony La Russa Anthony La Russa Jr. (; born October 4, 1944) is an American former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. His MLB career has spanned from 1963 to 2022, in several roles. He is the former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland At ...

, based in

Walnut Creek, California Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek s ...

. ARF rescues dogs and cats from public shelters where they would otherwise be

euthanized Animal euthanasia ( euthanasia from el, εὐθανασία; "good death") is the act of killing an animal or allowing it to die by withholding extreme medical measures. Reasons for euthanasia include incurable (and especially painful) conditi ...

and adopts them into new homes. Their programs include a

spay and neuter Neutering, from the Latin ''neuter'' ('of neither sex'), is the removal of an animal's reproductive organ, either all of it or a considerably large part. The male-specific term is castration, while spaying is usually reserved for female animals. C ...

clinic, training classes, service dog training for military veterans, a volunteer therapy dog program, and humane education programs for children. On May 7, 1990, during the opening game for

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

teams Oakland Athletics and the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

, a stray cat wandered onto the playing field at

Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Oakland Coliseum, currently branded as RingCentral Coliseum, is a stadium in Oakland, California. It is part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex, with the adjacent Oakland Arena, near Interstate 880. The Coliseum is the home ba ...

. The game was halted as the cat ran around the field. La Russa (then manager of the A's) coaxed the cat into the dugout, and began looking for a local shelter to re-home the cat. Tony and Elaine could not find a shelter, and learned that the cat would most likely be

. They decided to open their own shelter, and in February of the following year, Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation opened. In 2003, the organization moved to Walnut Creek, California, where it is headquartered in a building. By 2015, ARF reported rescuing 30,000 cats and dogs and spaying or neutering 28,000. The organization also has

therapy dogs A therapy dog is a dog that is trained to provide affection, comfort and support to people, often in settings such as hospitals, retirement homes, nursing homes, schools, libraries, hospices, or disaster areas. In contrast to assistance dogs, w ...

, which had made 184,000 visits as of 2015. Five years later, in 2020, the organization claimed to have rescued 42,000 cats and dogs and spayed or neutered a similar amount.

References

External links

Animal Rescue Foundation home page
Animal charities based in the United States Charities based in California Organizations based in Contra Costa County, California No kill shelters 1991 establishments in California {{US-philanthropy-org-stub