SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — Petco Love, a national nonprofit of Petco Health & Wellness Company, is ringing in the holiday season this year by donating $15 million across more than 550 animal shelters and rescues in the United States.

The nonprofit partners with thousands of animal welfare organizations across the country to support pet health and wellbeing and pet adoptions. One of these partners is no-kill shelter Kansas City Pet Project (KC Pet Project), which has received $500,000 as a recipient of Petco Love’s most recent investment.

KC Pet Project is the exclusive adoption partner for the 11 Petco Pet Care Center locations throughout the Kansas City metro area, and approximately half of all cat adoptions occur through KC Pet Project. Petco Love has provided $2 million in funds to KC Pet Project over the last 10 years.  

Houston, Texas-based Montgomery County Animal Services is another one of Petco Love’s longstanding shelter partners, and has received a $450,000 grant from the nonprofit this holiday season. Additionally, Mississippi’s Tupelo Lee Humane Society has received $125,000 from Petco Love.

"Our partner organizations continuously show us how love changes everything,” said Susanne Kogut, president of Petco Love. “The change they inspire in their communities and beyond is truly lifesaving. Petco Love partners with 4,000 organizations doing incredible work in so many different ways across the country, in small towns and big cities, all with the same goal — to save pet lives."

These shelter investments come on the heels of several “large scale” adoption events hosted by Petco Love across the United States in 2022. The nonprofit also set and achieved a goal of distributing 1 million free pet vaccines throughout the year, and aims to provide another 1 million free pet vaccines and host more adoption events in 2023.

The nonprofit has also delivered on its commitment to support the nation’s military veterans. In early November, Petco Love shared it had donated nearly $1 million to various organizations as part of its charitable Helping Heroes campaign. The campaign supports shelters and organizations that train service dogs to benefit those in need, particularly American veterans.

Petco Love's Helping Heroes initiative focuses on organizations that take pets from shelters and transform them into heroes to assist people in need, primarily our nation’s veterans. (Source: Petco Love)

“This Veterans Day, we are reminded that 18 veterans lose their lives every day to suicide,” Kogut said. “There is an overwhelming demand for trained service and companion dogs to support their needs. We are honored to provide the vital support necessary to assure that more shelter dogs can become trained canine companions to help veterans — saving lives at both ends of the leash.”

Petco Love cited research from Purdue University that has shown veterans who are paired with service dogs experience less severe PTSD symptoms and generally better mental health.

“We’ve demonstrated that service dogs can provide a higher quality of life for some of our nation’s veterans living with PTSD,” said Maggie O’Haire, professor at Purdue University. “Expanded funding, like that provided by Petco Love, is essential to meet the demand to expand this much-needed research.”

K9s For Warriors, Working Dogs For Vets, 4 Paws 4 Patriots, Shelter to Soldier, and K9 Partners For Patriots, Inc. all received investments from Petco Love’s 2022 Helping Heroes campaign. All organizations are working to train and provide service dogs to veterans suffering from service-related anxieties and disabilities, such as post-traumatic stress, brain injury, sexual trauma, and other medical or psychiatric issues.

Petco Love was founded in 1999, originally dubbed the Petco Foundation, and has since invested $330 million to support pet adoption and human-animal bond initiatives.

Stay up to date on the latest pet food processing industry headlines on our News page.