Petco Foundation, Skechers Partner for “Be a Lifesaver” Campaign

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Press release: Petco Foundation

The Petco Foundation has partnered with Skechers and its charitable footwear collection, BOBS from Skechers, to kick off the Foundation’s annual “Be a Lifesaver” campaign. The campaign aims to inspire pet lovers to join together to create a lifesaving nation through fostering, adoption, volunteering and making monetary donations to help pets in need.

A key focus of the campaign is to inspire pet parents to help save animals’ lives by celebrating and promoting the impact of fostering shelter pets. With summer quickly approaching, shelters around the country in Dallas, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia, etc. are experiencing an increase in pets entering their facilities and are sending out pleas for help. Temporary fostering of pets by the general public not only provides time for these pets to get adopted instead of being euthanized for lack of space, but living in a home environment is beneficial overall to their physical and emotional health. “If less than two percent of pet-owning households in the U.S. fostered one pet a year, we could eliminate unnecessary euthanasia in animal shelters tomorrow. That is a pretty startling statistic to most people,” said Susanne Kogut, president of the Petco Foundation. “We believe if people understood the incredible impact they can make by fostering and that it is an easy and fun experience, more people would do it.”

To create awareness and encourage more people to foster, the Petco Foundation has designated June “National Foster a Pet Month.” Throughout the month, the Petco Foundation will share information and stories about how fostering is highly rewarding for the foster family and makes a significant impact on helping the U.S. become a lifesaving nation.

Then, on Saturday June 29 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., select Petco stores across the nation will host “Be a Foster” events, where store guests will have an opportunity to learn more about foster care, what to expect when they become a foster family, the rewards of fostering and how fostering saves animal lives. Animal welfare organizations and experienced foster families will be on site to answer questions and share their experiences.

In addition to fostering, adopting and volunteering, Petco guests can make a difference for pets in need by making a donation at checkout or online during the overall “Be a Lifesaver” campaign, which runs from June 22 to July 14.

Pet lovers can also support animal welfare with their footwear and apparel choices. For every pair of BOBS from Skechers shoes and apparel items sold at Petco, Skechers stores, other national retail stores and online shopping sites in the United States, a donation* will be made to the Petco Foundation to help animals across the country.  Along with BOBS footwear, you can now buy coordinating BOBS animal accessories, like leashes, harnesses and collars at Petco stores and Petco.com.

The campaign will culminate with a nationwide “Be a Lifesaver” Adoption Weekend on July 13 – 14 at participating Petco stores across the country.