Weruva Pet Food Supports Wheels of Hope Transport Program - Spring 2008 - Out of the Cage!, the E-Newsletter of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

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Weruva Pet Food Supports Wheels of Hope Transport Program

David and Stacie Forman understand the importance of nurturing animals. Not only have they rescued animals; two years ago, the couple founded Weruva, the pet food company that creates high quality pet foods using natural food ingredients that are approved for human consumption. But offering a superior pet food apparently wasn't enough for them, and so the couple recently joined forces with the Mayor's Alliance to bolster animal rescue in their hometown.

In February, while celebrating "I Love NYC Pets" month with their fellow New Yorkers, Weruva became a sponsor of the Mayor's Alliance. The company announced that, throughout 2008, it will donate a portion of every sale of Weruva food in the NYC metropolitan area to the Mayor's Alliance's Wheels of Hope for Homeless Pets transport program. To launch the partnership in a personal way, David and Stacie were on hand at several "I Love NYC Pets" month adoption events, offering free samples of their human-grade pet food to adopters.

David and Stacie Forman and their adopted furry family, Webster, Rudi, Vanessa, and Baron, the inspiration for their Weruva brand of pet foods.

"We are honored to be welcomed by the Mayor's Alliance as a sponsor of its animal rescue efforts," said David, Weruva's president. "High fuel costs have impacted animals in need of rescue, too. We're excited to be contributing toward something as tangible as the Wheels of Hope program."

Since 2005, the Wheels of Hope for Homeless Pets program has transported nearly 6,000 animals from NYC's Animal Care & Control (AC&C) shelters to other Alliance Participating Organizations (APOs) for adoption. The program is being enormously successful in helping to reduce the number of animals killed at city shelters simply because homes for them cannot be found quickly enough.

When fuel prices rose through the roof in the summer of 2006, the Mayor's Alliance was faced with the possibility of having to curtail some of its life-saving transports. But two days of front-page coverage in amNew York, coupled with a challenge from the ASPCA to New Yorkers to step up and support the program, resulted in close to $50,000 in donations to fuel the Alliance transport fleet. Subsequently, the Wheels of Hope for Homeless Pets program has become one of the Mayor's Alliance's most popular initiatives for donors. In 2007, thanks to efforts by PETCO Foundation Director Paul Jolly, the PETCO Foundation gave a very generous grant to the Mayor's Alliance for the purchase of a new, customized Chrysler Town & Country Minivan, bringing the number of vehicles in the fleet to three.

Mayor's Alliance President Jane Hoffman presents the new Wheels of Hope mini-van to PETCO Foundation Director Paul Jolly. The van was purchased thanks to a generous grant made by the PETCO Foundation.

The valuable relationship being forged between the Mayor's Alliance and Weruva is an example of how companies can contribute in tangible ways to the efforts of the Mayor's Alliance and its 150-plus participating organizations to transform New York City into a no-kill community. The Mayor's Alliance is proud to have Weruva as a sponsor and supporter, and is looking forward to adding the Weruva logo to the transport vans.

To learn more about Weruva's human-grade food for dogs and cats, please visit the company's web site at www.weruva.com. To read more about the Wheels of Hope for Homeless Pets transport program or to make a donation to support the program, click here.