Pay it Forward with Heartland Animal Shelter

Do you want to be a hero to a homeless dog or cat this July 4th holiday? Starting June 25 through July 4, Best Friends Animal Society is giving pet lovers an opportunity to “Pay It Forward” by covering $25 of each adoption fee for a future family at more than 260 of its network of rescues and shelters across the country, including Heartland Animal Shelter.

“If you get excited when a stranger pays for your coffee, imagine the joy you’ll bring to someone who is ready to adopt their next best friend and finds out the adoption fee has been covered,” said Julie Castle, chief executive officer of Best Friends Animal Society.

Best Friends is encouraging people to Pay It Forward as part of its Save Them All campaign to save the lives of dogs and cats in America’s shelters. Adoption fees can be donated at www.save-them-all.org and donors can share their “Pay It Forward” excitement by posting a photo or comment with #PayItForward #SaveThemAll.

One compelling reason to Pay It Forward is that each July, shelters across the country flood with dogs and cats. Many of those intakes happen around the July 4th holiday, when, driven by a fearful reaction to fireworks and other loud sights and sounds, pets flee from their homes and end up in municipal animal shelters.

Adopting is another way to help. Those that are ready to adopt can find dogs and cats with fee waived adoptions from June 25 to July 4 at Heartland Animal Shelter. Heartland is waiving adoption fees for all animals who are at least 10 years old, or have been at the shelter for longer than 10 months, or have more than 10 toes on their front paws (polydactyl cats)! To preview all of Heartland’s adoptable pets, visit www.heartlandanimalshelter.org or www.facebook.com/heartlandanimalshelter.

About Heartland Animal Shelter

Heartland Animal Shelter is a no-kill humane 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to finding permanent, loving homes for homeless animals and promotes responsible pet ownership through education, community outreach, and collaboration, while maintaining respect and compassion for all creatures. Dr. Herbert Preiser opened Heartland Animal Shelter in 2002 and the shelter just celebrated its 15th year of operation with over 10,000 animals saved!

About Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends Animal Society is a leading national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters. In addition to running lifesaving programs in partnership with more than 2,200 animal welfare groups across the country, Best Friends has regional centers in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Salt Lake City, and operates the nation's largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals. Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters nationwide from 17 million per year to about 1.5 million. That means there are still more than 4,100 dogs and cats killed every day in shelters, just because they don’t have safe places to call home. We are determined to get that number to zero by the year 2025. Working collaboratively with shelters, rescue groups, other organizations and you, we will end the killing and Save Them All. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.

To become a fan of Best Friends on Facebook, go to Facebook.com/bestfriendsanimalsociety. Follow Best Friends on Twitter (@BestFriends) and Instagram (@BestFriendsAnimalSociety).