Dogswell donates 15,000 pounds of petfood at NKLA adoption weekend

Dogswell teamed up with Best Friends Animal Society to help people feed their dogs at NKLA Adoption Weekend with LiveFree food. For each dog adopted, Dogswell donated three months of LiveFree dog food and more than five pallets to Best Friends Animal Society—more than 15,000 pounds of dog food.
Dogswell's LiveFree food is available exclusively at independent pet retailers and at Unleashed by Petco. A round-up video of the event is available on YouTube.

Miranda Lambert, Pedigree partner to support pet adoption

On Nov. 3, 2014, country singer Miranda Lambert joined Pedigree at the company's Pet Adoption Suite to help support the adoption of shelter dogs.
Attendees at the event learned about the "See what good food can do" campaign and watched behind-the-scenes footage from Lambert's documentary-style short film about helping to improve a local shelter. Adoptable dogs from shelter partner Metro Animal Care and Control were on-site to show the importance of finding forever homes for shelter dogs everywhere.

Purina-sponsored cat cafe opens for one weekend in New York

The Purina-sponsored Cat Café opened on April 24 in Manhattan, and cat lovers enjoyed complimentary "cat'achino" cappuccinos, discussed cat health and learned about cat adoption with 16 cats in attendance. Purina One hosted the café as a pop-up shop, lasting only through April 27, but organizers said they hope the event encourages cat health awareness and adoption.

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"The goal of what we're doing here is try to start a conversation about cat health," said Niky Roberts with Purina One. "What better place to do that then over a cup of coffee with some friends in a café? We thought if people are going to be talking about cat health, you should be among your subjects and have cats all around you.
"It's a great thing because dogs are very publicly social—you can take your dog out and go for a walk, talk to people at the dog park—but that's not a luxury most cat owners have, so this is a place you can talk with like-minded people about cat health and be among cats."
The café featured a "Cat Chat" speaker series with discussions led by a cat behaviorist, a veterinarian and other cat experts. Purina One partnered with North Shore Animal League, a large, no-kill animal rescue and adoption organization based in Long Island, New York, to bring 16 specially chosen cats from around the country to hang out at the café.

Iams kicks off Home 4 the Holidays pet adoption drive

Iams pet food brand has began the 14th year of its Iams Home 4 the Holidays pet adoption drive in partnership with the Helen Woodward Animal Center, running through January 2, 2013, which seeks to raise awareness of pet adoption while ensuring proper nutrition for homeless pets.
New for 2012, the Digital Dish Drive will feature a different dog and cat available for adoption on the Iams Facebook page. During scheduled “feeding” times each day, Iams will donate a meal to a participating shelter for every “Like” or “Share.”
Iams Bags 4 Bowls program will also donate free pet food to participating animal shelters during the campaign, donating one bowl of food for each purchase of a specially marked package of Iams pet food. Additionally, Iams will donate food to a homeless pet awaiting adoption for each person that signs up for Iams Lifelong Rewards program after they adopt a new pet.
“With as many as 7 million orphaned pets in the US, this campaign is a wonderful platform to raise awareness about pet homelessness,” said Ondrea Francy, Iams general manager. “This year, Iams and Helen Woodward Animal Center are looking to donate more bowls of food than ever before to orphaned pets; last year we gave 5 million meals to animal organizations and we're looking to exceed that goal this year!”
As part of the campaign kick-off, Iams employees will celebrate the pet adoption drive with their annual Paws 4 a Cause event at Circle Tail, a pet shelter outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. More than 300 volunteers from Iams and other P&G Pet Care brands will donate almost 2,400 man hours to give the shelter a makeover and highlight the animals awaiting adoption there. 

PetFinder.com celebrates October as Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month

PetFinder.com is hoping to find forever homes for the nearly 200,000 dogs in shelters and rescues across North America by celebrating Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month in October.
PetFinder.com is urging families to help dogs in need of homes by:
• Adopting a dog or giving the gift of pet adoption with Petfinder’s Pet Promise Certificate.
• Volunteering with a local rescue or shelter
• Donating Facebook posts and Tweets to highlight adoptable dogs
• Visiting Petfinder.com for more ideas and resources
Additionally, Petfinder.com will host two Adopt-A-Shelter Dog Month events near the Washington, D.C., USA and New York, USA, areas, featuring adoptable dogs, prizes and more.
The first, an Animal Planet R.O.A.R. & Petfinder Community Adoption Event will be held on Thursday, October 4, from 4-6 p.m. The event will take place at the Discovery Communications headquarters at One Discovery Place in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA.
Another Petfinder Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month Adoption Event will also be hosted at Animal Haven at 251 Centre Street in New York, New York, USA, from 12-3 p.m. on October 13.

New study aims to better understand pet ownership, end pet homelessness

American Humane Association's Animal Welfare Research Institute released the results of the first phase of a three-part study to better understand pet ownership and retention and discover the most effective strategies to ensure homeless animals find their forever homes.
Phase I of the "Keeping Pets (Dogs and Cats) in Homes Retention Study," funded through a grant from PetSmart Charities, examines why some American households don't have a pet through interviews with 1,500 previous pet owners and non-pet owners. Research indicates that of the 117.5 million households in the US., 46.3 million have a dog in their family and 38.9 million own a cat. The group says that understanding the reasons people choose to own or not own a pet is the first step toward developing strategies to increase pet ownership and reduce pet homelessness.
The study found that despite massive public education campaigns encouraging people to adopt from shelters, fewer than one-quarter of previous dog owners (22 percent) and one-fifth of cat owners (18 percent) obtained their prior pet from a shelter or rescue organization. However, 64 percent of prospective owners who previously owned dogs and 56 percent of prospective owners who previously owned cats indicated that they would adopt a dog or cat from a shelter or rescue organization. And, in spite of the widely discussed physical and emotional benefits of pet ownership for older people, seniors citizens over age 65 were among the least likely to consider a pet with nearly 60 percent of seniors who previously owned a dog saying they would not consider another dog, and 66 percent of previous cat owners saying they would not consider another cat. Among seniors who never owned a pet, 90 percent said they would not consider ever getting a dog and 94 percent said they would not consider getting a cat.
These findings suggest that lowering the barriers to pet ownership will require supporting younger future cat owners and continuing to assess negative attitudes toward cats; understanding ongoing grief is a barrier to new pet ownership and identifying methods to help people work through grief; understanding that more future owners may be adopting pets from shelters and rescue agencies and offering support at this point of acquisition; and working with broad segments of society to reduce existing barriers to ownership, such as housing restrictions and veterinary/general expenses.
Phase II of the study will research how many dogs and cats acquired from a sampling of shelters and animal control agencies still remain in their new homes six months following adoption, and what happened to pets who are no longer in those homes. Phase III will test practical interventional strategies for improving retention rates following the acquisition of a new pet.
"By understanding the reasons why so many Americans do not own a pet, and learning what we can do to increase lifelong retention of those that do," said Dr. Robin Ganzert, president and CEO of the American Humane Association, "we can take the necessary steps to change minds, change policies and change activities to help get more of these beautiful animals out of shelters and into the arms of loving families." 

'Hallmark Channel's Pet Project' launched to promote dog, cat adoption

Crown Media Family Networks' Hallmark Channel is partnering with PetSmart Charities and the American Humane Association in the recently launched "Hallmark Channel’s Pet Project" campaign. "Hallmark Channel’s Pet Project" campaign is designed to celebrate the joy pets bring to people's lives, as well as to promote awareness of the epidemic of pet homelessness and encourage pet adoption. 
The campaign will include public service announcements, programming elements, social media engagement, and a website featuring videos, photos, pet-care tips, pet-finder resources and more. It will also include pet-themed programming consisting of pet segments on Hallmark's original daytime lifestyle shows, original movies like Puppy Love, and TV specials like the 2nd annual American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards.
“Pets bring so much joy and enrichment to our lives and ‘Hallmark Channel’s Pet Project’ is designed to honor this incredible human-animal bond,” said Bill Abbott, president and CEO, Crown Media Family Networks. “We also hope the campaign will educate and mobilize our audience around the issue of pet homelessness and help find homes for some of the thousands of wonderful animals waiting to bring their gifts and unconditional love to a family of their own.” 

Iams kicks off Home 4 the Holidays pet adoption program

Iams Home 4 the Holidays pet adoption program kicked off its annual adoption drive in partnership with Helen Woodward Animal Center, with the goal of finding homes for 1.5 million orphaned pets.

Iams will also donate 5 million meals to animals in need at adoption and rescue centers through its Bags 4 Bowls program. Iams will donate meals when consumers "Like" the Iams Facebook page as well as when they create and share a holiday card or adoption announcement on the page. The company will also donate meals with the purchase of specially-marked Iams dog or cat food during the duration of the campaign, which runs though January 3, 2012.

"Each year, as many as 4 million orphaned dogs and cats are euthanized due to shelter overcrowding – that is approximately one pet every eight seconds," said Mike Arms, founder of the adoption drive and president of Helen Woodward Animal Center. "Since partnering with Iams on the adoption drive 13 years ago, we have really seen the benefit of what this program can do for orphaned animals, and the families who adopt."

Natural petfood co. donates dog treats to Utah animal sanctuary

Old Mother Hubbard recently donated 3,600 bags of its Chick’n’Apples and Fish’n’Waves dog snacks to Best Friends Animal Society’s animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, USA.
Old Mother Hubbard said the donation was made through the company’s WellPet Foundation, which aims to support organizations and activities dedicated to the well-being of dogs and cats.
“We are thankful to the folks at Old Mother Hubbard,” said Teresa Bodum, senior manager of corporate and foundation relations at Best Friends Animal Society. “We are so pleased that, once again, Old Mother Hubbard will be generously providing tasty rewards to sanctuary animals awaiting adoption.”

Pedigree gives free petfood to dog adopters

Pedigree is offering customers the incentive to adopt dogs with a free month's supply of its dog food.
“It's our way of saying ‘thank you’ for helping us help dogs,” the company’s Web site said.