Organizations Win Awards In First Annual ASPCA/Friskies® Pet Protectors Contest

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Thursday, 5 September 2002

The animal cruelty task force of southern Arizona garners top prize.

The Animal Cruelty Task Force (ACT) of Southern Arizona won the grand prize in the first ever ASPCA/Friskies® Pet Protectors Contest. ACT is a coalition of 42 member organizations which facilitates police, animal control, animal welfare, veterinarians, criminal justice and social service organizations in providing a comprehensive response to crimes that affect animals. The grand prize is $5,000 and two pallets of Friskies® pet food. Two first-place winners, the Humane Society of Lollypop Farm in Fairport, NY and Cobb County Animal Control in Marietta, GA will receive $2,000 and two pallets of Friskies® pet food each. Eleven runners-up will receive $1,000 each.

Last April, during Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Friskies® Pet Food Company teamed up to identify outstanding animal cruelty prevention programs that can serve as models for animal protection organizations around the country.

The ASPCA National Shelter Outreach (NSO) department provides support to animal shelters and rescue organizations. They solicited entries from animal welfare organizations nationwide and received a flood of responses. The submissions covered a wide range of programs, including those implemented by animal cruelty investigations divisions, and police officers, to those run by foster groups, victim services, awareness campaigns and more.

Competitors were asked to send materials from their pro-active animal cruelty prevention programs that other groups could use to replicate similar programs or enhance existing ones in their area.

The winning submissions will become permanent reference features of the Petfinder.com Library for Animal Welfare Professionals, a free service available to all Petfinder.com shelter members. These references are also available directly from the ASPCA National Shelter Outreach program (outreach@aspca.org).

For more information, or to contact American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, see their website at: www.aspca.org