PetSmart® Announces Historic Adoption Milestone – Half a Million Pets Adopted Out in a Single Year Through Community Efforts and Store Program
Blu, of Fort Worth, is the 500,000th Adopted
Pet in 2015; PetSmart and PetSmart Charities Continue Mission to End Pet
Homelessness with Two Pets Adopted Every Minute a PetSmart Store is Open
PHOENIX–(BUSINESS WIRE)–PetSmart today announced that in 2015 it achieved a historic adoption
milestone – half a million pets adopted out in a single year. Blu, a
terrier mix estimated at a little over a year old, is the 500,000th
pet adopted out of a PetSmart store in 2015, joining the Sessums family
of Haslet, Texas, as their eighth family member.
In 2015, PetSmart adopted out nearly 517,000 pets in total, topping the
previous year’s milestone of 466,000 pets adopted in 2014.
Prior to joining the Sessums, Blu was with the City of Fort Worth Animal
Shelter, one of PetSmart’s local adoption partners, for several months.
Blu was adopted and brought back twice before being adopted out of a
PetSmart store, where the City of Fort Worth Animal Shelter was
conducting an adoption event. Blu found his forever home with the
Sessums family and joins mom, Suzanne, dad, Darrell, sons Tanner, 15,
and Colby, 12, as well as two Chihuahuas, David and Rosie, and a black
lab named Shadow.
“I just can’t believe Blu was brought back twice – he is the perfect
dog, such a love bug, but I think his puppy energy may have been the
challenge for the previous families,” Suzanne said. “We recently said
goodbye to our 13-year-old Corgi, Chewy, who we adopted 10 years ago. We
knew we would adopt again and were planning to take our time, but one
week after the loss of Chewy, Blu picked us at a PetSmart store. He was
especially taken with my youngest son, Colby. Usually the dogs pair up
with me, but Blu and Colby are great companions.”
To celebrate Blu as the 500,000th pet adopted in 2015,
PetSmart is giving the Sessums a year’s supply of dog food and treats
for all four pups in the household. Blu prefers Simply Nourish™ lamb
formula and his favorite treat is Milo’s Kitchen® chicken jerky.
“Adoption is about love and creating and expanding family – Blu joins
the Sessums family as their eighth member and the Sessums join our
PetSmart family of passionate people who save lives — 6.7 million pets
since we started our adoption services in 1994,” said Eran Cohen, chief
customer experience officer, PetSmart. “We are thrilled for Blu and by
our adoption achievement for 2015, and we look forward to helping expand
families everywhere in 2016 and saving even more lives.”
Each year, about 7 million pets enter shelters across North America and
some 3 million healthy, adoptable pets are euthanized. To help end pet
homelessness and save lives, PetSmart joins PetSmart Charities, PetSmart
Charities of Canada and nearly 3,000 local animal welfare organizations
across North America on a range of powerful adoption events in PetSmart
stores. Four times each year, PetSmart highlights the adoption program
through National Adoption Weekends where nearly 20,000 pets find
lifelong, loving homes in a single weekend. Last year, through all the
combined adoption efforts at PetSmart stores, two pets were adopted
every minute a store was open and about 1,400 pets’ lives were saved
every day.
Blu has transitioned well to his new family, and Suzanne, a staffer at
Victory Therapy Center, which provides therapeutic riding, physical
therapy and counseling services in Roanoke, Texas, also sees great
promise in Blu serving as a therapy dog at the center.
“We recently lost all our therapy dogs because the family moved away.
Blu is so loving and affectionate, I see a strong future for him as a
therapy dog, too, and I plan to train him for this important work,”
Sessums added.
As a gift to new pet adopters for saving a life – whether adopting at
PetSmart or elsewhere – PetSmart offers its free Adoption Starter Kit
available every day at PetSmart stores. To ensure every adopter has all
the essentials for their new family member, the kit includes more than
$400 in savings on products and services – even a free bag of pet food,
including Blu’s favorite: Simply Nourish.
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 can live more fulfilled lives. This mission impacts
everything we do for our customers, the way we support our associates,
and how we give back to our communities. We employ approximately 53,000
associates, operate approximately 1,444 pet stores in the United States,
Canada and Puerto Rico and approximately 202 in-store PetSmart®
PetsHotel® dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart provides a
broad range of competitively priced pet food and pet products and offers
dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart
Doggie Day Camp day care services and pet adoption services
in-store. Our portfolio of digital resources for pet parents – including PetSmart.com,
PetFoodDirect.com,
Pet360.com,
OnlyNaturalPet.com
and petMD.com
– offers the most comprehensive online pet supplies and pet care
information in the U.S. Through our in-store pet adoption partnership
with independent nonprofit organizations, PetSmart
Charities™ and PetSmart Charities™ of Canada, PetSmart helps to save
the lives of more than 500,000 homeless pets each year. In addition,
PetSmart supports organizations that make communities a better place to
call home through our philanthropy program, PetSmart
Gives Back™. By giving back to the communities where we live and
work, PetSmart not only celebrates the power of pets to enrich
people’s lives—we live it.
Follow PetSmart on Twitter: @PetSmart
Find
PetSmart on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PetSmart
See
PetSmart on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/PetSmart
About PetSmart Charities™
PetSmart Charities, Inc. is a nonprofit animal welfare organization that
saves the lives of homeless pets. Each year nearly 500,000 dogs and cats
find homes through our adoption program in all PetSmart® stores across
the U.S. and sponsored adoption events. Each year millions of PetSmart
shoppers contribute to pets in need by making donations on a pin pad at
the register. Their generous donations are then managed by PetSmart
Charities, which efficiently uses 90 cents of every dollar, making
funding grants to directly help pets in need. PetSmart Charities grants
more money to directly help pets in need than any other animal welfare
group in North America, with a focus on funding adoption and spay/neuter
programs that help communities solve pet overpopulation. PetSmart
Charities is a 501(c)(3) organization, independent from PetSmart, Inc.
PetSmart Charities has received the Four Star Rating for the past 13
years from Charity Navigator, an independent nonprofit that reports on
the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of nonprofits,
placing it among the top one percent of charities rated by this
organization.
About PetSmart Charities of Canada
PetSmart Charities of Canada is a nonprofit animal welfare organization
that saves the lives of homeless pets in Canada. Each year more than
20,000 cats and dogs find Canadian homes through our adoption program in
nearly all PetSmart® stores across Canada and our sponsored adoption
events. A leading funder of animal welfare, PetSmart Charities of Canada
has granted more than $9 million to help pets in need with a funding
focus on adoption and spay/neuter programs that help communities solve
pet overpopulation. PetSmart Charities of Canada is a registered
charity, independent from PetSmart, Inc.
About City of Fort Worth Animal Shelter
The mission of the City of Fort Worth’s Animal Shelter is to find loving
and forever homes for all the pets that land at the shelter, protect
them from neglect and cruelty, and promote humane awareness and
compassion. Our purpose is to decrease the number of unwanted and stray
dogs and cats in the city, to encourage responsible animal ownership and
to protect the city’s public health, safety and welfare.
Contacts
Golin for PetSmart Charitable Programs:
Jennifer Kepler,
972-341-2552
jkepler@golin.com
or
PetSmart’s
Media Line:
623-587-2177
