PHOENIX – Feb. 20, 2018 – It’s National Love Your Pet Day, and tens of thousands of pet parents and families across North America are celebrating after 29,739 pets were adopted during PetSmart Charities’ first National Adoption Weekend of 2018. It’s a fitting day to announce the second-most successful adoption event the leading pet specialty retailer and its sister nonprofit have hosted since beginning the in-store adoption program in the 1990s.
“At PetSmart Charities, we love pets — on National Love Your Pet Day and every day of the year. That’s why we’re committed to finding shelter pets the lifelong, loving homes they deserve,” said David Haworth, DVM, Ph.D., and president of PetSmart Charities. “Together with our adoption partners, their dedicated volunteers and our passionate PetSmart associates, we’d like to thank all of the adoptive pet parents and families for answering our call to Bring Love Home during this February’s National Adoption Weekend.”
Hosted Feb. 16-18, the weekend event saw 3,500 animal welfare organizations bring adoptable pets into nearly every one of the 1,600-plus PetSmart stores across Canada, the U.S. and Puerto Rico. These in-store adoption events are welcoming, conveniently located, and bustling with tens of thousands of adoptable pets of all varieties and scores of pet-loving people and families. Together, PetSmart and PetSmart Charities are providing homeless pets with a place where they have a better chance of meeting their perfect match and finding a forever home.
Arie Luyendyk Jr., the current “Bachelor,” knows a little bit about finding his very own perfect match. Luyendyk was on-site at a local PetSmart store in his hometown of Phoenix to help kick off PetSmart Charities’ first National Adoption Weekend of 2018. While he didn’t give away any secrets about the popular reality show’s season finale, he did talk about the joys of pet adoption and introduced many people to his faithful, four-legged canine companion, Bastian, who was adopted from a Phoenix-based shelter seven years ago.
There was more than one way to show a love of pets at PetSmart this weekend. During a pet food donation drive that took place in every store during National Adoption Weekend, more than 2,185,747 pet food items were donated by generous shoppers and pet adopters. The donated pet food will soon be delivered to local adoption partners, pet rescues and shelters to help feed pets in need. PetSmart and PetSmart Charities will host the next National Adoption Weekend on May 18-20, 2018.
A Free Gift for Those Who Adopted:
When pet parents adopt a kitten, cat, dog or puppy, regardless of whether the pet was adopted from a PetSmart store or a local animal welfare organization, PetSmart offers a free Adoption Kit* that provides important content to help integrate a new pet into the family. Click here for more information about PetSmart’s Free Adoption Kit.
Did You Adopt a Pet During National Adoption Weekend? Share it on Social!
Share your photos and stories with us! You can upload them to our website: www.petsmartcharities.org, or share them on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using the handles below and include the hashtag #iadopted.
Follow PetSmart Charities on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PetSmartChariTs
Find PetSmart Charities on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/PetSmartCharities
See PetSmart Charities on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/PetSmartCharitiesInc
*Adoption papers are required.
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About PetSmart®
PetSmart, Inc. is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. At PetSmart, we love pets, and we believe pets make us better people. Every day with every connection, PetSmart’s passionate associates help bring pet parents closer to their pets so they, together, can live more fulfilled lives. This vision impacts everything we do for our customers, the way we support our associates and how we give back to our communities. We employ approximately 55,000 associates, operate 1,600 pet stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as more than 200 in-store PetSmart® PetsHotel® dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and products, as well as pet-focused services such as dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart™ Doggie Day Camp™ and pet adoption. PetSmart, together with non-profits PetSmart Charities® and PetSmart Charities® of Canada, invite more than 3,500 animal welfare organizations to bring adoptable pets into stores so they have the best chance possible of finding a forever home. Through this in-store adoption program and other signature events, PetSmart has facilitated more than 7.8 million adoptions – more than any other brick-and-mortar organization. The company’s portfolio of digital resources for pet parents includes PetSmart.com, petMD.com, Pawculture.com, AllPaws, an online pet adoption platform that helps potential pet parents find the perfect pet to adopt based on their home, family and lifestyle, as well as BlogPaws, the world’s first pet blogger and influencer network. Through these digital platforms, PetSmart offers the most comprehensive online pet supplies and pet care information in the U.S. In celebration of its 30th anniversary, PetSmart launched its Buy a Bag, Give a Meal™ program in March 2017. For every bag of cat or dog food purchased March 1 – Dec. 31, 2017, PetSmart donated a meal to pets in need and beat its goal of 60 million meals with more than 63 million meals generated through this leading philanthropic program. In May 2017, PetSmart acquired Chewy.com, a leading online retailer of pet food and products in the U.S., which operates as an independent subsidiary.
Find PetSmart on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PetSmart
See PetSmart on Instagram: @PetSmart
Follow PetSmart on Twitter: @PetSmart
See PetSmart on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/PetSmart
PetSmart homepage: http://www.petsmart.com/
Turn your passion for pets into a career you’ll love! Visit careers.petsmart.com to learn more about corporate, retail store and Distribution Center opportunities.
About PetSmart Charities®
PetSmart Charities, Inc. is a nonprofit animal welfare organization with a mission to find lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets together. In addition to finding homes for almost 500,000 shelter pets each year through its in-store adoption program in all PetSmart stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, PetSmart Charities provides funding to non-profits aligned with its mission through four key areas of grant support: Preventing Pet Homelessness; Helping Shelter Pets Thrive; Supporting the Bond Between People and Pets; and Emergency Relief and Disaster Support. Each year, millions of generous PetSmart shoppers help pets in need by donating to PetSmart Charities using the pin pads at checkout registers inside PetSmart stores. In turn, PetSmart Charities efficiently uses 90 cents of every dollar donated and has become the leading funder of animal welfare in North America, donating about $300 million to date. PetSmart Charities, a 501(c)(3) organization, has received the Four Star Rating from Charity Navigator, an independent organization that reports on the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of nonprofits, for the past 14 years in a row – placing it among the top one percent of charities rated by this organization. To learn more visit www.petsmartcharities.org.
Follow PetSmart Charities on Twitter: @PetSmartChariTs
Find PetSmart Charities on Facebook: Facebook.com/PetSmartCharities
See PetSmart Charities on YouTube: YouTube.com/PetSmartCharitiesInc
About PetSmart Charities® of Canada:
PetSmart Charities of Canada is a registered Canadian charity with a mission to find lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets together. In addition to finding homes for more than 25,000 shelter pets each year through its in-store adoption program in all PetSmart stores, PetSmart Charities of Canada provides funding to registered charities aligned with its mission through four key areas of grant support: Preventing Pet Homelessness; Helping Shelter Pets Thrive; Supporting the Bond Between People and Pets; and Emergency Relief and Disaster Support. Each year, millions of generous PetSmart shoppers help pets in need by donating to PetSmart Charities of Canada using the pin pads at checkout registers inside PetSmart stores. In turn, PetSmart Charities efficiently uses 89 cents of every dollar donated and has become a leading funder of animal welfare in Canada, donating nearly $14 million to date. PetSmart Charities of Canada is a member of Imagine Canada and is independent from PetSmart, Inc. To learn more, visit www.petsmartcharities.ca.
Contacts:
Virginia Hock
Golin for PetSmart
469-680-2611
vhock[at]golin[dot]com
PetSmart 24-Hour Media Line: 623-587-2177
