Humane Society picked for grant program

Royal Canin, a dog and cat food supplier, recently announced a program for The Humane Society of Young County and two other shelters to provide bowls of food when the company receives a pledge online saying a pet owner made a veterinary visit. The “Curiosity Saved the Cat” campaign is in support of National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day on Aug. 22. For owners who do get their cat routine checkups, the company asks that you visit royalcanin.com/cat2vetday and pledge so the Humane Society of Young County can receive a bowl of food. “For every pledge that is taken through Aug. 26, Royal Canin will donate a bowl of food to animal shelters across the country,” said Shelter Supervisor Jennifer Ertl.“I believe it’s going to help out many shelters, not just our own.” Shelter Director Stacey Allen applied for the grant program and around two weeks ago the shelter was given notice they won eligibility. Ertl said the shelter was excited not only because of the opportunity to provide for the animals but because the company gave them another choice as well. “We were extremely excited because dog food is a lot harder for us to keep than cat food, so knowing that we can get either cat or dog food and it’s a good brand of cat food and a good brand of dog food, so we were actually kind of a little girly,” she said. “We were like squeaky and celebrated and were very excited. It means the world to us to have something big and neat happen here.” According to Ertl, the Humane Society has always been pretty well off on cat food to the point they helped support some of their friends with cat rescues. She said the shelter’s cat-food abundance is cats and dogs have different eating habits. “When people bring a bag of dog food they also bring a 30-pound bag of cat food, which will go a lot farther than a 20-pound bag of dog food,” Ertl said. The shelter in the past received a $12,500 matching grant from The Meadows Foundation, and the community was able to raise more than the amount needed to receive those funds. For the rest of this story, pick up a copy of Saturday's Graham Leader, or subscribe to our online edition.