“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France

Jacque with one of her first rescues.

Every great movement stems from a great need: a need for change, a need for action and a need for awareness. Enter Jacque Petrone, a youthful and wide-eyed optimist, who knew her calling before most of us know what adulthood really feels like. In 2005, Jacque had just returned home to Sebastian, FL from college in Colorado where she was attending as a veterinarian student. She opened the building where HALO now calls home as a boarding and grooming facility until the fateful day she received the devastating call of a mama cat being hit by a car and orphaning a litter of kittens. Try as she might, Jacque could not find a no-kill shelter in Indian River County or the surrounding vicinity to care for the sweet babies she found herself responsible for. In the middle of the night, after hours of bottle feeding and nursing these kittens back to health, Jacque dreamed of a better way and HALO No-Kill Rescue was born.

In 2006, HALO was officially recognized as a non-profit organization to be a safe haven for abused and abandoned animals and became the only no-kill shelter in Indian River County. With Jacque’s relentless determination and countless more sleepless nights, HALO was able to save 225 companion animals in that first year alone. Twelve years later, a new shelter addition, hundreds of fundraising events and thousands of volunteer hours, HALO has rescued over 10,000 beautiful souls and decreased euthanasia in Indian River County by 70%. Every day we are amazed by the tireless efforts from our community to make this program even more successful than the previous year. One woman’s passion and a grass roots community is what HALO was built on and continues to survive on and we are so thankful and blessed for our amazing staff, volunteers and sponsors! It’s just a better way!