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One of the many things to consider when buying dog food is that many companies are starting to support animal charities with the sales of their food. Some companies use their profits to support rescue organizations, while others help charities that help promote dog education and training.
Most of these companies make the best quality dog foods, so it is really worth considering the charitable activities of a dog food company when picking what to feed your dog.
NUTRO
NUTRO is a great dog food company that specializes in healthy, natural and grain-free dog foods. They have a full range of products including wet and dry foods that are available for all stages of life. They currently have three charitable initiatives and accept direct donations. The first is their in-house initiative Room to Run. Room to Run helps develop dog parks in communities all over the country. NUTRO works with community leaders and volunteers to build dog parks. They fund these projects with the profits of from dog food and have so far improved over 120 dog parks nationwide.
Their second charitable initiative is through a partnership with The Natural Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF). SDF helps train dogs to act as first responders during natural disasters. These dogs are trained to find victims trapped in wreckage and have saved the lives of countless police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and civilians. NUTRO provides SDF with food for their dogs and has pledged to donate over $1 million dollars over the next five years.
Finally, NUTRO partners with Rescue Bank. Rescue Bank is a dog food bank that donates food to rescue organizations across the country. NUTRO directly donates food to Rescue Bank and also makes it easy for consumers to donate food when they purchase their products and through their website.
Purina
Purina is one of the largest pet food manufacturers in the world and subsequently they have given a lot back to the dog community. Over the years Purina has spent nearly $20 million dollars on charitable initiatives to help rescue dogs. Purina has three major initiatives currently, the first is the Adopt A Pet website at www.adoptapet.com a website that rescue organizations can use to list their rescues for free. Since it’s inception, Adopt A Pet has helped 11,500 animal welfare organizations find owners for their rescues.
Another one of Purina’s charitable initiative is Bowl by Bowl. It’s a simple app, that every time someone plays the game they give a bowl of food to a rescue dog. Since it’s launch 5 years ago, it has provided food to 50,000 rescue dogs.
Finally, Purina has created a program called Rally to Rescue. Rally to Rescue provides marketing materials and support, financial donations, and food to small rescue organizations across the country. With Purina’s help through Rally to Rescue, these organizations have seen over 500,000 rescued dogs.
Beyond these three major initiatives, Purina has a few other smaller charity initiatives like Pets for Seniors that provides dog adoptions to senior citizens for free, Pet Partners that provides therapy dogs for people with chronic illnesses, Pets For People that has sponsored over 1.5 million adoptions, and donating food to a large variety of animal welfare groups.
Natural Balance
Natural Balance specializes in healthy, limited ingredient pet foods. They also have a full range of holistic and natural dog foods for every stage of life. Natural Balance sponsors two charitable initiatives and works in partnership with another. They also have a charitable rebate program where rescue organizations can return their UPCs and Natural Balance will donate money directly to their organization.
The first program is an in house directive called the Non-Profit Animal Rescue. Natural Balance provides free food donations to nonprofit rescue groups that apply. The second inhouse initiative is called Community Matters. Through Community Matters, Natural Balance works to provide sponsorship for fundraising and adoption events across the country.
Finally, Natural Balance partners with Guide Dogs for the Blind. Guide Dogs for the Blind provides training and placement of guide dogs to blind citizens in the United States. Natural Balance provides food and funding for this training program that has seen 12,500 people paired with seeing eye dogs.
Honorable Mention
There are several other best quality dog food brands that support charitable efforts. High Hopes is a dog manufacturer that makes fancy dog treats and they give 3.5% of all profits directly to their charity group High Hopes for Pet Foundation which helps homeless pets find homes. Dad’s dog food has a charity initiative called Dad’s Have a Heart Foundation which allows consumers to submit their UPC labels for free food for their favorite local shelter. Finally, Newman’s Own Organic Pet Foods donates a full 100% of their profits to animal rescue groups.
Charitable Pet Food Stores
If from this list of foods you cannot find a dog food that is right for your dog. You can also consider where you buy your food. Many stores that specialize in dog food, both local stores and big chains, also have charitable initiatives that help raise money and awareness for local and national rescue organizations. The best way to find out if your local retailer has charitable initiatives is to ask them. So make sure no matter what food you decide to buy, you also purchase your dog’s food from a place with one of these great programs.
So the next time you decide to change your dog’s food think about switching them to one of these brands to help other dogs. If none of these brands work for your dog, make sure you always buy your food with a company that supports animal welfare organizations. The simple act of purchasing the dog food you already buy could help save countless lives.
