Independent Animal Rescue Wins Care2 America’s Favorite Animal Shelter Contest

Care2 and Adopt-a-Pet.com award $20,000 in prizes to shelters across the U.S.

Redwood City, Calif. - Dec. 4, 2008 - Care2 (www.care2.com) today announces the winners of its “America’s Favorite Animal Shelter” contest, held in conjunction with Adopt-a-Pet.com (www.Adopt-a-Pet.com). With more than 10,500 votes, Independent Animal Rescue, Inc. (Durham, N.C.) is named the “favorite” animal shelter and receives the $10,000 grand prize. The other two top vote getters, NorCal Boxer Rescue and Southern California Bulldog Rescue, win the $3,000 and $1,000 prizes, respectively.

“With the continuing recession, many shelters have told us they are experiencing a decrease in donations, while seeing an increase in the number of dogs and cats coming in to their organizations,” said Randy Paynter, CEO and founder of Care2. “We are concerned about this growing trend and wanted to support those rescue groups and shelters that have been identified by their communities. This contest helped mobilize over 200,000 people who voted for their favorite shelter, generated amazing feedback from individuals about the great work these thousands of rescue groups and shelters are doing in their communities, and helped us identify and honor those groups voted best in America.”

Independent Animal Rescue, Inc. (IAR) (www.animalrescue.net) is a non-profit, no-kill shelter that rescues animals that are found as strays or originate from the local shelters that are in danger of euthanasia. The organization places the animals with volunteer foster homes, in the Durham region, and pays for vet care and animal supplies. IAR also provides spay and neutering for pets of disadvantaged families, as well as behavior dog training.

”The $10,000 prize means everything to homeless animals in our region,” Jennifer Naylor, president of Independent Animal Rescue, Inc., said. “Last year, IAR volunteers saved over 500 animals from uncertain futures. With this generous donation we will be able to save even more dogs and cats this year. In addition, IAR will be able to expand our feral cat and community spay and neuter programs by financing more sterilization surgeries for cats and pets of low-income families.”

Care2.com, the largest online community of people passionate about making a difference, which provides information about green and healthy living, has been committed to animal issues since its inception. The partnership with Adopt-a-Pet.com, a nonprofit pet adoption charity that helps shelters and rescue groups advertise their adoptable animals online for free, has enabled the company to reach millions of people who are concerned about pets needing homes.

The second place winner, NorCal Boxer Rescue (www.ncbr.org/tx/index.php), received more than 7,000 votes and plans to use its prize money to provide medical care to the rescued Boxers in its Texas and California programs.

“Because of the economic hardships our nation is currently facing, the increasing number of dogs in need of help has significantly taxed our available resources,” said Kim Smith of NorCal Boxer Rescue. “In the past three months, we have seen a decline in giving of nearly 85 percent, so the $3,000 prize money from Care2 will help us bridge the gap between what we have and what we need to be able to provide the happy, healthy life that these dogs deserve.”

Third prize winner, Southern California Bulldog Rescue, located in Santa Ana, Calif., will use its prize money to continue to assure that no bulldog is ever turned away for lack of funds.

In addition to the first, second and third place winners, Care2 also awarded fourth and fifth prizes to: Homeless Animals Rescue Team in Fairfax Station, Va. (www.hart90.com) and Small Paws Rescue in Tulsa, Okla. (www.smallpawsrescue.org).

Weekly Winners

Over the course of the five week contest period, prizes of $1,000 were awarded by Adopt-a-Pet.com to the following randomly selected organizations:

1. Cat Community Connection, Webster, Mass. (www.ccatconnect.org)
2. Animal Rescue Foundation of Louisiana, Lafayette, La. (www.arfla.org/about.html)
3. Sound Pet Animal Rescue and Referral (SPARR), Cary, N.C. (www.soundpet.org)
4. Rescue Angels, Arlington, Va. (http://www.rescueangels.org/)
5. Wyandotte Animal Control, Wyandotte, Mich.
(http://www.adoptapet.com/adoption_rescue/75862.html)

“We were excited to see so many people vote for animal groups throughout the U.S.- from those that are devoted to cats to others that help specific breeds of dogs,” said David Meyer, president of Adopt-A-Pet.com. “We look forward to working more with Care2 and its members to continue to raise awareness about the plight of animals that are in desperate need of care and families.”

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About Care2
With more than 9.4 million members and over 350 nonprofit partners worldwide, Care2 is the largest online community for healthy and green living, human rights and animal welfare. Founded in 1998, Care2 has featured nearly 244,000 petitions created by the site and its members, collecting more than 28 million signatures on timely and important issues, ranging from wildlife conservation to healthcare to human rights. Please visit the Care2 community at www.care2.com

About Adopt-a-Pet.com
Adopt-a-Pet.com (www.Adopt-a-Pet.com) is North America’s largest nonprofit homeless pet adoption website, displaying pets from over 6,000 animal shelters to 1.5 million potential dog and cat adopters each month. The organization helps shelters, humane societies, and SPCAs advertise their homeless pets to adopters for free, allowing its millions of site visitors each year to adopt a dog or adopt a cat.

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