Seattle, Nov. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today Greater Good Charities with the support of longtime partner, Mars Petcare announced a new foster program called Good Home™, designed to connect shelter pets with potential fosters. The program also provides educational support and training to foster volunteers and shelters through Mars’ Foster to Furever™. The program is the latest collaboration between the organizations aimed at ending pet homelessness. Over the course of the decade-long partnership, Greater Good Charities has helped facilitate the donation of more than 100 million meals from Mars Petcare and its brands to shelter dogs and cats in need across the country. The two organizations have also worked closely to place thousands of pets in loving forever homes through multiple joint collaborations.
The Good Home™ and Foster to Furever™ programs will help facilitate foster matches for pets in needs and lift some of the stress on the animal welfare system. The program allows potential pet foster volunteers to search registered animal shelters near them to be matched with a pet in need. For animal shelters that register with Good Home, the team will help find local pet foster volunteers, provide instructions on how to manage the foster list, and offer training and resources to support a successful foster program.
“The need for foster families is steadily increasing once again, and the introduction of Good Home™ and Foster to Furever™ will make it more seamless to connect foster families with pets in need,” said Silja Schiller-Moumtzidis, Director of Global Shelters and Pet Adoptions at Mars Petcare. “Collaborative programs and partnerships like this help us reach our goal of ending pet homelessness, and help more animals find loving homes.”
According to recent PetPoint data, cat populations in shelters have returned to pre-2020 levels, and shelter dog populations have surpassed 2019 levels. Driven by a decrease in adoptions, decrease in animal transfer, and increase in length of stay, many shelters all over the country are above capacity, with euthanasia is up 72% since February 2021.
“Greater Good Charities believes fostering pets is a key solution to the animal shelter overpopulation issue and finding at-risk pets forever homes,” said Liz Baker, CEO for Greater Good Charities. “Our shelter partners have been reporting that adoptions and fostering have slowed in 2021 and we want to be able to support them with a sustainable program during this challenging time and beyond.”
The Good Home™ program, and Foster to Furever™ program will be run by two websites, one for dog and one for cat, both presented by Mars Petcare brands. FidoFoster.org, presented by PEDIGREE® brand, and FelineFoster.org presented by Royal Canin, are resources for the Good Home communities that is focused on improving the care for homeless dogs and cats by supporting a national network of foster caregivers and helping animal welfare organizations become foster-centric.
To learn more about Good Home visit greatergood.org/good-home.
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About Greater Good Charities
Greater Good Charities, is a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit organization, with a 100/100 rating on Charity Navigator, that works to amplify the good in the world to improve the health and well-being of people, pets, and the planet. Since 2007, Greater Good Charities has given over $350 million in cash and in-kind grants to over 5,000 charitable partners worldwide and funded projects in 121 countries. To date, Greater Good Charities has provided over $28 million in support for COVID-19 disaster-relief, including cash grants, in-kind supplies, and programmatic support. To learn more about how Greater Good Charities is amplifying the good across the globe, please visit greatergood.org or follow Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
About Mars Petcare
Part of Mars, Incorporated, a family-owned business with more than a century of history making diverse products and offering services for people and the pets people love, the 85,000 Associates across 50+ countries in Mars Petcare are dedicated to one purpose: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS™. With 85 years of experience, our portfolio of almost 50 brands serves the health and nutrition needs of the world’s pets – including brands PEDIGREE®, WHISKAS®, ROYAL CANIN®, NUTRO™, GREENIES™, SHEBA®, CESAR®, IAMS™ and EUKANUBA™ as well as the WALTHAM Petcare Science Institute which has advanced research in the nutrition and health of pets for over 50 years. Mars Petcare is also a leading veterinary health provider through an international network of over 2,000 pet hospitals and diagnostic services including BANFIELD™, BLUEPEARL™, VCA™, Linnaeus, AniCura and Antech. We’re also active in innovation and technology for pets, with WISDOM PANEL™ genetic health screening and DNA testing for dogs, the WHISTLE™ GPS dog tracker, and LEAP VENTURE STUDIO accelerator and COMPANION FUND™ programs that drive innovation and disruption in the pet care industry. As a family business and guided by our principles, we are privileged with the flexibility to fight for what we believe in – and we choose to fight for: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS.
© 2021 Mars or Affiliates.
