Uniquely Paws Limited

Uniquely Paws is a New York–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit working with Ugandan pet charities to strengthen communities through animal welfare. With nearly 15 years of experience alongside USPCA, we focus on humane solutions to dog and cat overpopulation and rabies through free spay/neuter clinics, vaccinations, and education. By empowering women to create animal-themed products from sustainable materials, we support livelihoods while protecting animals and communities. Our work prioritizes prevention, compassion, and long-term impact. Together with local partners, we create practical alternatives to suffering and promote responsible pet ownership across Uganda.

Focus Areas

Animals Worked With

• Free Spay & Neuter Clinics We sponsor free community spay and neuter clinics for pet owners and underserved stray dog and cat populations across Uganda's villages and neighbourhoods. These clinics make essential veterinary procedures accessible to communities that would otherwise go without contributing directly to responsible pet ownership, healthier animal populations, and more compassionate, balanced communities. The response from local authorities has been overwhelmingly positive, with villages actively spreading the word to neighbouring communities so that more people and animals can benefit.
• Rabies Vaccinations Rabies prevention is a public health priority and Uniquely Paws is at the forefront of addressing it. Through free community vaccination clinics and targeted education about the dangers of rabies, Uniquely Paws has contributed to a steady and measurable decline in rabies cases in the communities it serves. Between 2022 and 2023, the organisation delivered 2,132 rabies vaccinations. A further 237 animals were vaccinated in 2024, followed by 1,602 more in 2025 bringing the cumulative total to over 3,971 vaccinations and moving Uganda meaningfully closer to a healthier, safer future for people and animals alike.
• Yellow Collar Initiative Launched in 2023, the Yellow Collar Initiative is Uniquely Paws' signature awareness and protection program. Animals that attend free rabies vaccination clinics receive a distinctive yellow collar a visible, community-recognised symbol that the animal is up to date on its rabies vaccination. What began as a simple idea has grown into a powerful tool for promoting responsible pet ownership, increasing public awareness, and giving local governments a practical, scalable program to build on. The yellow collar is now a recognised symbol of protection across the communities Uniquely Paws serves.
• Be A Pet Hero Through school outreach programs held alongside free community clinics, Uniquely Paws engages children directly equipping them with the knowledge, compassion, and confidence to care responsibly for their animals and inspire positive change in their communities. Interactive Pet Care Colouring Books make animal welfare education accessible and engaging for young people. In 2024 this program expanded into the Animal Welfare Ambassador initiative empowering passionate young community members to look out for animals in need and serve as active champions for animal welfare in their neighbourhoods.

We believe that lasting change starts with the youngest members of a community. Before every free community clinic, our team goes directly into local schools — meeting children where they are and giving them something they can carry with them long after the clinic is over. Through our interactive Pet Care Colouring Books, we make animal welfare education accessible, engaging, and genuinely fun for young people who may never have had the opportunity to learn about responsible pet ownership before. In 2024 we took that commitment further with the launch of our Animal Welfare Ambassador program. We identify passionate, caring young people in the communities we serve and empower them to become active champions for animals in their neighbourhoods looking out for animals in need, spreading awareness, and leading by example among their peers and families. The response has been extraordinary. Children who attend our programs go home and teach their parents. Families who might never have brought their pets to a clinic show up because their child asked them to. Communities that were once unaware of the connection between animal welfare and public health are now some of our most engaged and enthusiastic partners. We do this because we know that a child who learns to treat animals with kindness grows into an adult who builds a kinder community. And a kinder community is a safer, healthier, and more compassionate place for every living thing in it people and animals alike.

Achievements

• Advocating Against Mass Dog Poisoning We have been vocal and active advocates against the use of mass dog poisoning as a method of controlling stray and animal populations in Uganda. This practice is not only inhumane it is ineffective, indiscriminate, and entirely at odds with the kind of compassionate, evidence-based approach to animal population management that we know works. We have championed humane alternatives at every level, demonstrating through our own community clinic model that responsible pet ownership, spay and neuter programs, and community education deliver far better outcomes — for animals and for the communities that live alongside them. Through 11 free pet care clinics in Kajjansi alone, we have saved over 5,000 animals proving beyond any doubt that compassion is a more powerful tool than poison.
• The Yellow Collar Initiative What began as a simple idea has grown into a nationally recognised symbol of protection, awareness, and community responsibility. We introduced and popularised the Yellow Collar Initiative across Uganda as a practical, visible tool in the fight against the spread of rabies — and the response has been extraordinary. To date we have distributed over 10,000 yellow collars to communities across Uganda, each one marking an animal that has been vaccinated against rabies and registered in the Global Alliance for Rabies Control tracking system. Every yellow collar on every dog in every village is a data point, a conversation starter, and a sign that this community has chosen prevention over fear. We are proud to have taken this initiative from a local program to a national movement and we are only getting started.
• World Rabies Day 2025 Clinics Under the global theme "Act Now: You, Me, Community," we took to the field for World Rabies Day 2025 with one mission — to make veterinary care accessible, education widespread, and compassion for animals a community effort. Across eight free community clinics in Kampala and Wakiso Districts, our teams delivered lifesaving care to 1,721 dogs and cats. We vaccinated 1,602 animals against rabies, performed 489 spay and neuter surgeries to prevent unwanted litters and reduce the stray population, and registered 284 puppies and kittens too young for vaccination for follow-up care — because no animal gets left behind in our long-term rabies control efforts. Beyond the treatment tents, over 1,800 young pet guardians were engaged and educated on responsible pet ownership through our Be a Pet Hero program. Each clinic brings us one step closer to a rabies-free Uganda — and proves that prevention through vaccination, education, and sterilisation works far better than fear and neglect ever could.
• Advocating for the Creation of AWAU We were among the founding voices behind the establishment of the Animal Welfare Alliance Uganda — and we are proud of it. From the beginning we understood that Uganda's animals needed more than individual organisations working in isolation. They needed a unified, constitutionally bound alliance that could bring the country's most committed animal welfare organisations together under shared standards, shared accountability, and a collective voice strong enough to be heard at a national level. We advocated for that alliance, helped bring it into existence, and signed the founding constitution as a Founding Member. AWAU is the infrastructure that Uganda's animal welfare movement needed — and being part of building it from the ground up is one of the impacts we are most proud of.

Partnerships

• Uganda Small Animals Practitioners Association (USAPA) USAPA brings the veterinary expertise and professional networks that allow us to deliver high quality, high volume care at every clinic we sponsor. Their practitioners are on the ground with us at every event ensuring that every animal we see receives care that meets the highest standards of veterinary practice.
• Vetconekt Initiative Vetconekt provides the operational capacity and coordination support that keeps our community clinics running smoothly and effectively. Their deep roots in Uganda's animal welfare community and their commitment to accessible veterinary care make them an invaluable partner in everything we do on the ground.