ASPCA Gears Up for a Bigger $100K Challenge in 2011

NEW YORK--The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today announced the launch of the second ASPCA $100K Challenge, with more prizes and stronger competition to help shelters save more homeless pets.

During the 2011 ASPCA $100K Challenge, 50 animal shelters across the country will compete to save at least 300 more animals--during the months of August, September, and October 2011--than they did over the same three-month period in 2010. Like last year, the ASPCA will award a $100,000 grant to the shelter contestant that achieves the greatest increase in lives saved during this three-month period and a $25,000 grant to the contestant that does the best job of engaging their community members in helping to save more animals.

For this year's contest, the ASPCA has more than doubled the incentive to shelters with an additional $175,000 in grant funding and a variety of ways to win at the regional or national level. Also new this year is a two-week-long "qualifying heat" during which shelters will have to be voted in by their fans and supporters.

"Last year's first-ever ASPCA $100K Challenge completely changed our perception of what was possible in the animal sheltering world," said Bert Troughton, vice president of Community Outreach for the ASPCA. "We were blown away by our contestants who saved a total of 7,362 more animals as compared to the same three month period in 2009. Our $100K Challenge winners, the Humane Society of Boulder Valley in Boulder, Colo., alone saved 2,640 cats and dogs in just three months' time - an increase of 968 cats and dogs over their 2009 numbers - which is simply phenomenal."

Troughton continued: "As we kick off the this year's ASPCA $100K Challenge, our sights are still set on helping shelters create innovative new approaches for increasing adoptions, reuniting lost pets with their owners, or transferring pets to adoption partner organizations, all in an effort to save even more lives than last year."

It has long been a priority of the ASPCA to create a country of humane communities - where there is no more euthanasia of homeless animals simply because of a lack of space or the resources to adequately care for them. The ASPCA $100K Challenge builds on that work by inspiring shelters and their communities to innovate and act to save more lives. For more information about the 2011 ASPCA $100K Challenge, please visit http://challenge.aspcapro.org/.