City of San Antonio (Texas) Animal Care Services Tops South Central Division after First Month of 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge

NEW YORK—The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today announced that City of San Antonio Animal Care Services in San Antonio, Texas is at the top of the leaderboard in the South Central liision of the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge, as 1,135 pets were adopted or reunited with their owners during the first 30 days of the three-month competition, an increase of 294 lives saved over the same month last year. Through October, 50 animal shelters from across the country will work to increase adoptions in order to win a piece of the more than $500,000 in ASPCA prize grants, including a grand prize of $100,000.

During the first month of the contest, many shelters tried out new methods of driving traffic to their adoption centers – many held big adoption events, unique promotions and discounts on adoption fees, and more. 

“City of San Antonio Animal Care Services certainly started off their run in the contest with a bang – on August 1, they hit their 5,000th adoption for the year – a milestone they’d been looking forward to in the weeks before the contest started,” said Bert Troughton, vice president of community outreach for the ASPCA. “They continued the celebration all that weekend with a ‘Rock Around The Clock’-themed adoption event, and they have been blowing us away with their impressive numbers – 1,135 in just one month! – since then.”

In addition to City of San Antonio Animal Care Services, contestants in the South Central liision for the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge are: 

• Arizona Animal Welfare League & SPCA in Phoenix, Ariz.
• HALO Animal Rescue in Phoenix, Ariz.
• Humane Society of Southern Arizona in Tucson, Ariz.
• Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society in Santa Fe, N.M.
• Tulsa Animal Welfare in Tulsa, Okla. 
• Beaumont Animal Services in Beaumont, Texas
• Denton Animal Shelter Foundation in Denton, Texas
• BARC Animal Shelter & Adoptions in Houston, Texas

The contestants will work to save at least 300 more cats and dogs during the months of August, September and October 2012 than they did during the same period in 2011. The ASPCA and Rachael Ray will award a $100,000 grand prize to the shelter contestant that achieves the greatest increase in lives saved during this three-month period. A second place prize of $25,000 will be awarded to the shelter with the second greatest increase in lives saved, and the contestant that does the best job of engaging its community members in helping to save more animals will win $25,000. Those organizations that do the best in their liisions will be eligible for between $5,000 and $40,000 in additional grants.

All her life, Rachael Ray has been an advocate for animals and a supporter of animal welfare groups. Her love for animals and for her pit bull, Isaboo, inspired her to create a pet food called Nutrish® to raise money for animals in need.  Ray donates 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of Nutrish® to organizations like the ASPCA so they can implement programs like the $100K Challenge and support shelters and animal organizations around the country.

To find a contestant near you, please visit http://challenge.aspcapro.org/contestants. To see a complete list of events as they are scheduled, please stay tuned to http://challenge.aspcapro.org/events throughout the contest. The ASPCA also has joined the contestants and all of their supporters in tweeting with the unique hashtag #100KChallenge. The ASPCA encourages animal lovers to use #100KChallenge on Facebook and Twitter to help spread the word about adopting animals from shelters in the contest.

The ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge is a groundbreaking contest that challenges animal shelters across the country to come up with innovative ways to engage their communities and get more homeless cats and dogs into loving homes. For more information about the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge, please visit www.aspca.org/100kchallenge.