A Helping Paw of East Wareham is kicking off their annual fundraiser, "Have A Heart For Pets," to benefit the care and cost of homeless pets and to raise funding for their "Prevent A Litter Campaign."

"We're focusing a lot on helping the public afford to spay and neuter their pets," said Founder and Acting President Chrissy Tomkiewicz. "The reason we're focusing on this is because for over 100 years our animal shelters have been overfull...the only way we are really going to hit the bottom with this issue is by putting money towards spaying and neutering."

From now until the end of March, the nonprofit humane society will hang a heart in their front window for every $5 donation received. Each heart will be personalized with the name of a favorite pet or person of the contributor's choice.

The $5 donation also purchases a raffle ticket for one of two $100 gift certificates for Buzzards Bay Tattoo. The raffle will be held on March 3.

Donations can be sent to: A Helping Paw/Hearts for Pets, Box 387, Buzzards Bay MA 02532. They can also be made online through A Helping Paw's website, www.ahelpingpaw.org, by scrolling down and clicking on the "Give" button.

Donations are made through Paypal, and donors can write the name of the person or pet they want displayed on their heart in the "notice" section of Paypal's donation page. Alternatively, donors can send an e-mail with the name to ahelpingpaw@aol.com.

All of the money raised will go towards helping people in the community that have lost their jobs and cannot afford to spay or neuter their pets, Tomkiewicz said.

"Animal shelters are a wonderful place, but the whole point is to prevent the pets from ending up in the shelter in the first place," said Tomkiewicz, "so we're going kind of hard core [with our spaying and neutering program]."