The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) recently announced that it had provided $5 million in grants to 392 organizations during the first quarter of 2012. Animal welfare programs across the nation - including spay/neuter organizations, emergency response and rescue teams, adoption preparation efforts, and microchipping initiatives - received a total of 488 grants during the first three months of the year, marking a 310 percent increase over first-quarter grants in 2011.

So far this year, the ASPCA has granted $1.5 million for spay/neuter programs, more than $850,000 for return-to-owner initiatives (including microchip insertion, pet registry development and ID tagging) and almost $700,000 for adoption events and efforts that prepare animals ahead of time, boosting the likelihood of adoption. Also, more than $400,000 was put toward rescue and seizure in cases of animal cruelty or following a disaster.

In addition, the organization has used a portion of the funding to establish 100 scholarships for continued learning courses, workshops and training programs for humane law enforcement agents and animal welfare professionals.

"Helping organizations across the country save more animals is a major focus of the ASPCA's, and we are blown away by the sheer volume of grant requests we've received thus far," said Michael Barrett, vice president of grants management at the ASPCA.