Impact Story: Jenny Mor

A Great Equalizer 

Jenny Mor remembers it like yesterday — the dirty room, the smell…the ironing board. Even though she was only eight years old at the time, Jenny knew this wasn’t right.

Her family loved their cat, but like many households, they simply couldn’t afford to have her spayed. During a visit to her grandmother’s home in Wisconsin, her grandmother insisted on helping and took the cat to a local veterinarian for surgery. When it was time to bring the cat home, Jenny was sent inside to get her.

What she saw was disturbing — something she would never forget.

The room was cramped and dirty, the air thick with odor. The procedure had been performed on an ironing board. Not long after returning home, the cat developed a painful infection.

Yes, the cat survived. But even as a child, Jenny understood something was deeply wrong. She made a quiet promise to herself that when she grew up, she would do better.

Years later, that promise led her to UCAN.

Jenny came to understand that her childhood experience was not only about quality care, but also affordability. “Doing better” meant making high-quality pet care accessible to more families — helping animals live long, healthy lives free from pain and suffering.

Jenny first became involved through Pedigree Interiors, UCAN’s former consignment shop that sold donated furniture and household goods to support the nonprofit’s mission. When the shop eventually closed, her commitment did not. In 2018, she began volunteering directly with UCAN, where she discovered something even more meaningful than she expected.

“You really feel like you’re part of something that matters,” she says.

Ask Jenny what drives her commitment, and one word surfaces again and again: fairness.

“People love their pets and want to do right by them,” she says. “But too many believe care is simply beyond their reach.”

“UCAN is a great equalizer.”

She has seen how deeply pets support emotional well-being — easing loneliness, offering stability during hardship, and bringing moments of joy when they are needed most. When financial barriers force a family to surrender a pet, or when a pet has unplanned litters the family cannot afford, the loss is profound for both.

That is why Jenny views affordable veterinary care through the lens of social justice.

“UCAN is a great equalizer,” she says. “It makes pet care possible for people who might otherwise go without.”

By removing cost as a barrier, UCAN helps keep families intact while addressing the root cause of shelter overcrowding. It is a practical solution grounded in dignity and fairness.

UCAN’s work, Jenny insists, is bigger than any single message.

“It’s about equitable access. It’s about prevention. It’s about compassion,” she says. “And it’s about the joy pets bring to our lives.”

For those who may not think of themselves as animal lovers, Jenny offers a broader way to see UCAN’s mission:

“It’s all of the above,” she says with a smile.