ASPCA Announces $100K Challenge to Save More Lives

NEW YORK—The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today announced the launch of the Save More Lives – ASPCA $100K Challenge. During this unique contest, 50 animal shelters across the country will work tirelessly to save at least 300 more animals—during the months of August, September, and October 2010—than they did over the same three-month period in 2009.

The shelter contestant that achieves the greatest increase in lives saved during that three-month period over last year will receive a $100,000 grant from the ASPCA to continue their life-saving work. A second grant of $25,000 will be awarded to the shelter contestant that engages the largest number of community members in helping to save more lives.

In addition to rewarding the most successful shelters in the Challenge, the ASPCA will also offer its expertise and resources to participating shelter staff on useful strategies for increasing adoptions, improving return-to-owner rates, engaging the community, and increasing awareness through the media and other channels.

“In the United States, 60 percent of households have a cat or dog, yet 80 percent of these households did not adopt their pet from a shelter,” said ASPCA President & CEO Ed Sayres. “The ASPCA $100K Challenge challenges shelters to mount their best efforts and innovative new approaches for providing positive outcomes for homeless animals, by getting pets adopted, reuniting lost pets with their owners, or transferring pets to adoption partner organizations.”

It has long been a priority of the ASPCA to create a country of humane communities – where there is no more euthanasia of homeless animals simply because of a lack of space or the resources to adequately care for them. The ASPCA $100K Challenge hopes to build on that work by inspiring shelters and their communities to innovate and act to save more lives. For more information about the Challenge, please visit www.aspcapro.org/challenge.