Mars Petcare to Cover Adoption Fees at 3 Shelters for 1 Weekend

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Nashville, Tennessee, area shelters are celebrating their 10th annual adoption weekend in partnership with Mars Petcare, August 25-26. All fees will be covered by Mars Petcare for any pets adopted from three area shelters—Metro Animal Care & Control, Nashville Humane Association and Williamson County Animal Center—during those two days. Each year, 8 million pets end up in shelters; in Middle Tennessee alone, more than 40,000 pets are surrendered to shelters. Adoption weekend was developed 10 years ago to address this issue.

“Our purpose at Mars Petcare is ‘A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS,’ and part of living up to that purpose is helping to find loving homes for pets in shelters and minimize the number of pets that end up in shelters in the first place,” said Mark Johnson, president Mars Petcare North America. “Through this annual adoption weekend, we can continue moving toward eliminating pet homelessness.”

In 2017, Mars Petcare launched BETTER CITIES FOR PETS, a program that works with communities and policy-makers across the country to make cities more pet-friendly so that people and pets can have better, healthier lives together. Some of the program’s efforts include advocating for pet-friendly housing and restaurant spaces and educating people on responsible pet ownership. A big part of a pet-friendly city is having shelters that are welcoming to encourage adoption and partners who collaborate to end pet homelessness.

Through BETTER CITIES FOR PETS, Mars Petcare has partnered with the SAFE Coalition to establish the ‘Mars Petcare Home for Good Fund,’ which offers grants to coalition partners, allowing them to provide pet owners with resources, such as heartworm prevention, spay/neuter and behavioral support, to help as many pets as possible stay in their loving homes and out of shelters.

“We’re working toward a day when all healthy and treatable animals are saved,” said Nikki Kelley, senior manager of network operations, Best Friends Animal Society. “Events such as adoption weekend make it easier to place shelter animals in responsible and loving homes, while providing critical resources to the shelters that dedicate themselves to the animals in their care.”