The ASPCA Rachael Ray 100K Challenge recently came to a close. This 5-year challenge was designed to encourage shelters to find creative ways to save the lives of more animals.
I recently talked with Olivia Melikhov, Senior Manager, Social Media, and Susan Furukawa, Program Manager, of the ASPCA to get the inside scoop on how the challenge worked.
Participating shelters were challenged to increase the number of lives saved from the same time period the year before.
So…… did it work?
The numbers say YES!
A total of 239 shelters completed the challenge, and over 282,000 dogs/cats were saved!
Shelters also increased the number of people following them through newsletters and social media, and increased the number of volunteers working with them. This ensures the higher numbers of lives saved will continue for years to come.
They improved their working relationships with local area rescue groups. These new partnerships helped move more animals out of shelters and into rescues.
And the challenge helped more than just the participating shelters. When other shelters and rescue groups saw what was working for the participating shelters, they also incorporated some of those new ideas into practice to save more lives.
All in all, this challenge did some amazing things for animals!
This is such exciting news! It particularly excites me to see shelters doing such great work, while at the same time being vilified by some who care about animal welfare.
Please help dispel the myth that shelters don’t care about saving lives by sharing the good news!
Better yet, go voluteer at a shelter and see for yourself what your local animal shelter is doing. And if you don’t like what you see, work to make things better…. for the animals.
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Photos provided by the ASPCA and were used with permission.
Dogpaddling Through Life 
Brilliant news ^_^
xxxx
Indeed!
I feel compelled to start this conversation on a bitter sweet note, My roommate and I have been trying to the build a”non for profit”” NO KILL SHELTER” FOR The 45,000.00 animals in Southeast Louisiana. Katrina single handily perished over1,400.000.00 at last count.how criminal and yet Sad ., meanwhile I quit my job from the Court house so I could devote my time ,energy and little resources on rescuing and we are almost finished with a pup & kit daycare.center, I hated to be left alone, how could I leave my 3 dogs 2 cats at home while we went to work so home alone not if I can help it they won’t …
. I am determined to scratch bark and cry for these animals. Katrina may have gave us a 1, 2 punch , but bring it on because our animals WILL NOT surrender to weather starvation, and worst of all hatred from other human beings, no no , not under my watch..Jefferson Parish 3 miles south of New Orleans, and animals run prevalent with hunger, fear, and cars yes cars hurting these harmless animals with not so much as a sorry ,a stop to help that would be a resounding NEGATIVE.
As we all know no animals should NOT be FORCED to endure these hellish streets, I’m doing what I love and will continue until my last few dollars or gone, and I will do what I need to lmake sure I touch ever animal in my grasp that they make so many people smile ,If only every person gave .50 cents imagine the life and the joy on every animal and the peace and sleep they could get. This is my calling and I will not stop yelling ,kicking screaming until we are finished our non for profit NO KILL SHELTER, and then I just may take a lil nap.
It’s so great that they could save so much lives and of course, I will share it. (although it’s sad to read that 282.000 animals had no home during the last 5 years)
If you count animals in rescues and shelters, the number of homeless animals us huge!
Here’s hoping the changes are here to stay!!
Wonderful results! Kudos to Rachel Ray for throwing out the challenge and super kudos to those who made it work.
wow, very commendable effort… hope something like this kickstarts in my country, India too
Wow! this is great news!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Rachel Ray is one voice, and a great example of shining a big light to help bring attention to all the bright other lights that are doing so much to help make a difference, and inspire change for the better. This is so encouraging. Thank you for posting and all you do to make a difference, Rumpy and gang. ❤
What a great news it is! All smile faces on those pictures including a cat and a dog are so beautiful!! 🙂
This makes me so happy.
Sometimes things work. YEA!
Yay! It’s nice to read good news.
I really like reading the Maddie’s Fund page where they share the ideas different shelters and rescues have implemented to increase adoptions. It’s very heartening.
I’m very happy that all those additional dogs/cats got adopted. It is just a shame that a challenge with a monetary award needed to be the incentive.
Fantastic! How nice to read such good news when it comes to saving animals!
What marvellous news – the numbers spew loud and clear!
might have even meant speak – damn you autocorrect 😉