City of Bloomington Animal Shelter ASPCA $100K Challenge Adopt-a-Thon a Success

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2012

For more information, please contact:
Laurie Ringquist, Director, City of Bloomington Animal Shelter, 812.349.3870, ringquil@bloomington.in.gov

City of Bloomington Animal Shelter ASPCA $100K Challenge Adopt-a-Thon a Success

Bloomington, IN -- The City of Bloomington Animal Shelter kicked off the ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge on Wednesday, August 1 with an Adopt-a-Thon that ended Sunday, August 5. Dog adoption fees were reduced to $40 and cat adoption fees were waived. During those five days, 124 dogs and cats were adopted into new homes and 6 stray dogs and cats were reunited with their owners for a total of 130 lives saved. All adopters were also entered into a raffle to win tickets and gift certificates donated by Wonderlab, the Indianapolis Indians, Holiday World and Splashin' Safari, Mad4MyDog Training, Bloomington Pet Pals, The Owlery Restaurant, Century Suites and the local WalMart.

The Challenge runs until October 31, 2012 and is a competition among 50 shelters nationwide to increase the number of dogs and cats adopted or reunited with their owners over and above the amount saved during August, September and October of 2011. Each Shelter that saves a minimum of 300 more lives automatically wins an award of $5,000 but the shelter that saves the most number of additional lives wins the $100,000 award. The City of Bloomington Animal Shelter saved 757 lives during this time period in 2011 and has set a goal to double the number of lives saved to 1,500.

"The Adopt-a-Thon was a huge success and we are so thankful to the community for coming in to adopt. The number of adoptions was more than double what we would normally have so we are excited about what we can accomplish during this Challenge. We also owe a huge thank you to our volunteers who helped make sure the Adopt-a-Thon ran smoothly and to those local businesses who donated gift certificates and tickets for our raffle," said Laurie Ringquist, Director of the Animal Shelter. "Now we have to keep the momentum going for the next three months to reach our goal and win the grand prize."

Beginning Monday, August 6 and through the rest of the Challenge the shelter will offer an "a la carte" [menu|file:aspca-menu.jpg] of daily adoption specials such as "Muttly Mondays" where every Monday all mixed breed dogs will be $40 and "Free Feline Fridays" where every Friday all cat adoption fees will be waived.

For more details on adoption promotions and special events, visit the Shelter website at www.bloomington.in.gov/animalshelter and the Shelter facebook page at www.facebook.com/COBanimalshelter.

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