IAMS Home 4 The Holidays Aims To Place 1.5 Millions Pets

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Last weekend we attended the Home for the Holidays Pet Adoption at the Irvine Animal Shelter.  It was great to see all the wonderful volunteers working to get animals placed before the holidays.  While dogs seem to dominate the pet adoption there were also cats, birds, bunnies, and even a pig.

We do our best here at Puppy In Training to promote our local shelters and rescues and also advertise upcoming adoption events including the aforementioned Home for the Holidays Pet Adoption, the Super Adoption, and the OC Pet Expo.

This year we were contacted to participate in a larger adoption event.  The IAMS Home 4 the Holidays and Hillary Swank aim to place 1.5 million pets in homes this holiday season.   This is a very admirable goal and we are all for people adopting homeless animals from our shelters and rescues.

IAMS Home 4 the Holidays

Here are some facts from the IAMS Home 4 the Holidays website:

• As many as 8 million animals are homeless in the U.S.
• Nearly 4 million orphaned dogs and cats will be euthanized this year due to shelter over-crowding and lack of awareness about the importance of pet adoption.
• More than 25 percent of all dogs in shelters are purebreds.
• IH4TH helped 1,202,751 pets find homes last year alone.
• In Oct. 2008 Hilary Swank adopted Rumi through IH4TH at a Los Angeles shelter.
• Over the past decade more than 3 million pets –1,638,515 dogs, 1,505,690 cats and 134,062 “other” animals – have been adopted through IH4TH.

Those numbers are staggering and for those of you looking for a purebred dog – “25% of all dogs in shelters are purebred.”

Even though we are advocates of pet adoption we would also like to point out that you should carefully plan and evaluate your own situation before you make the decision to adopt a new pet.  A new pet in your family is a tremendous responsibility and adopting a cat or dog is usually a 10+ year commitment.

One final thought…If your thinking about getting a dog, cat, puppy, kitten as a gift then please read my article on Christmas Puppies before you make that decision.  A pet as a gift is usually not a wise decision.

We’re happy be a part of the IAMS Home 4 the Holidays blogging program and hope to see them reach their goal of 1.5 million pets adopted this holiday season.

We did receive one update notifying us that 621,034 pets had been adopted since October 1st, 2009.  That’s great!  We’re well on our way to reaching the 1.5 million goal.

Please leave us a comment if you adopt a pet in the coming weeks.  We’d love to hear about your experience and see some pictures of your new pet.

Top Picks For Our Puppies

1. BEST PUPPY TOY
   We Like: Calmeroos Puppy Toy w/ Heartbeat and Heat Packs - Perfect for new puppies. Helps ease anxiety in their new home.
2. BEST DOG CHEW
   We Like: Mighty Paw Naturals Bully Sticks - All of our puppies love to bite, nip, and chew. We love using Bully Sticks to help divert these unwanted behaviors.
3. BEST DOG TREATS
   We Like: Crazy Dog Train-Me Treats - We use these as our high-value treats for our guide dog puppies.
4. BEST FRESH DOG FOOD
   We Like: The Farmer's Dog - A couple months ago we started feeding Raven fresh dog food and she loves it! Get 50% off your first order of The Farmer's Dog.

Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist.