SUMMERLEE FOUNDATION DALLAS TEXAS

Henry Beston, American writer-naturalist, wrote:

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."

SINCE ITS INCEPTION, The Summerlee Foundation has promoted a new ethic towards our fellow beings through its international grantmaking programs supporting rescue, research, rehabilitation, and advocacy. Our grants have assisted a wide variety of programs, including companion animal issues, carnivore protection, sanctuary and refuge, and endangered species issues. Many of these projects have been controversial, all have been critically important.

Now we face emerging and expanding crises in the protection of non-human animals: climate change, persecution and exploitation on a global scale, wildlife extinction and disease, companion animal abandonment and intentional cruelty and torture. The challenges are serious and many. Unfortunately, we have fewer resources available to successfully defeat these growing threats.

As we develop our strategies for effective programs, Summerlee will narrow its focus in some areas while we continue the initiatives we originally created. Geographically, we are funding only in those communities which are the most underserved and the most challenged, with an emphasis on the west and mid-west regions of the United States. Programmatically, we will focus on cats, with special emphasis on the feral and free-roaming. We continue our work with Mexico and the Asociación Internacional Protectora de Animales as they move towards sustainability. Our wildlife program will continue its emphasis on mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and bears, funding only those programs which protect with advocacy and ethical research. We continue to support Earth Island Institute and the Sunny Initiative, an anti-captivity program protecting dolphins and whales.

The Summerlee Foundation is enormously proud of the dedication and achievements of its grantseekers and congratulates all of you for your vision, your commitment, and your ability to make a difference in the lives of so many. Don’t give up the Fight.

Principal Office