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, 2016-Feb-09 — /EPR Retail News/ — 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.
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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.
PetSmart:
Golin for PetSmart Charitable Programs:
Jennifer Kepler
jkepler@golin.com
972-341-2552
PetSmart’s Media Line: 623.587.2177