The numbers are tallied: 1,363,638 animals were adopted during the Iams Home for the Holidays adoption campaign that ran between October 1 and January 4, 2010. Almost 1.4 million pets adopted. Over 3,900 shelters and rescue organizations in 17 countries participated.
Here are the adoption totals:
- 729,357 dogs (53.5%)
- 588,265 cats (43.2%)
- 46,016 other pets (3.3%)
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I am glad that so many organizations are focusing on rescue and adoption. The numbers are definitely encouraging, but we still have a long way to go.
According to Hilary Swank, the 2009-2010 spokeswoman for the Home for the Holidays adoption campaign, each year in the US, 8 million animals await homes in shelters. Sadly, 6 million never make it out of the shelter.
Times are changing though, and I spoke with Swank about her feelings on pet adoption, dealing with wanting to "take all of them home," and other animals besides dogs and cats available for adoption at shelters. Says Swank: "... there is an animal for everyone out there." Besides dogs and cats, people may be surprised to learn about the horses, goats, turtles and even chickens available for adoption.
Photo: Hilary Swank and her two rescued dogs, Karoo and Rumi - credit: Iams Home for the Holidays
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