Paws For Life and Petco Encourage Pet Fostering With a Focus on Fun

Paws for Life Rescue, Troy, Michigan, is teaming up with national nonprofit Petco Love and Skechers, with its BOBS from Skechers philanthropic footwear collection, to put the focus on the fun in fostering pets. Pet fostering is lifesaving and critical for animal shelters, particularly during the busy summer season.

“Ending preventable euthanasia of shelter pets is possible today,” said Susanne Kogut, president of Petco Love. “Data tells us that if we could encourage 2% more of the 85-million pet-owning households to foster just one pet a year, we can eliminate preventable euthanasia and save the lives of the 800,000 shelter animals at risk of euthanasia in the U.S. annually.”

But fostering can be serious fun, too.

Throughout June, Petco Love will work with its network of partners nationwide to share the fun aspects of fostering while helping pet parents groove through their foster pet goodbyes. In fact, saying goodbye to foster pets – and the fear they’ll struggle giving the pet to a new family – is among the most-cited reasons why pet parents don’t foster.

Petco Love is taking a humorous approach to saying goodbye to foster pets by holding a #MyFosterBreakUp story contest featuring Foster Breakup Kits giveaways and a curated playlist to help foster pet parents through their goodbyes.

Kits include breakup essentials: cozy, festive socks from BOBS from Skechers, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Kleenex, the official Petco Love Foster Breakup Spotify Playlist, and a foster tee that reminds you that “Foster Pets are Here for A Fun Time, Not a Long Time.” Foster parents can enter to win by sharing their breakup letter from their foster pet on Instagram using the hashtag #MyFosterBreakUp from June 1 –30 and even win $10,000 in lifesaving funds for the organization they foster from.

“There are two things that every rescue needs in order to help homeless pets,” said Courtney Protz-Sanders, Paws for Life executive director. “We need people and we need funding. Foster care homes are critical to lifesaving. It's also a rewarding experience, nursing a pet back to health or just providing temporary care and housing until a forever home is found.”

Establishing June as National Foster a Pet Month to increase participation in fostering is just one of the lifesaving actions led by Petco Love in their 23-year history of helping pets, with $330 million invested in lifesaving efforts and 6.5 million pets adopted – and counting. Skechers has contributed more than $8 million to help over 1.5 million shelter pets, including saving 1.1 million rescued pets in the United States and Canada.

The nonprofit also recently launched a new national database, Petco Love Lost, which uses pet facial recognition technology to help reunite missing pets with their families.

To learn more about Paws for Life Rescue, please visit www.pawsforliferescue.org.

To learn about Petco Love and to view foster resources, visit petcolove.org/foster and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #PetcoLoveFoster.

For more on BOBS from Skechers, visit BOBSfromSkechers.com.

Paws for Life Rescue
Founded in 2007, Paws for Life Rescue (PFL) is a 501(c)3, tax-exempt, non-profit animal welfare organization run by a group of hardworking, dedicated volunteers. PFL is a 5-star certified, all-breed dog and cat rescue, located in southeast Michigan. PFL rescues homeless, neglected, abused and abandoned dogs, cats, puppies and kittens from overflowing shelters in southeast Michigan. Visit www.pawsforliferescue.org for more information.

Petco Love
Petco Love is a life-changing nonprofit organization that makes communities and pet families closer, stronger, and healthier. Since our founding in 1999 as the Petco Foundation, we’ve empowered animal welfare organizations by investing $330 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. We’ve helped find loving homes for more than 6.5 million pets in partnership with Petco and organizations nationwide.

Our love for pets drives us to lead with innovation, creating tools animal lovers need to reunite lost pets, and lead with passion, inspiring and mobilizing communities and our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners to drive lifesaving change alongside us. Join us. Visit petcolove.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to be part of the lifesaving work we lead every day.