NYC Artists Help Shelter Pets: 'The Art Dogs & Cats of NY' Exhibit Featuring Local Artists' Hand-Painted, Cast-Stone Cat and Dog Statues Launches This Month

About the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

The Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, Inc., founded in 2002 and powered by Maddie's Fund, The Pet Rescue Foundation, with support from the ASPCA, is a coalition of more than 150 animal rescue groups and shelters working with Animal Care & Control of New York City (AC&C) to end the killing of healthy and treatable cats and dogs at AC&C shelters. To achieve that goal, the Alliance, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, helps its Alliance Participating Organizations (APOs) work to their highest potential to increase pet adoptions and spay/neuter rates, with the goal of transforming New York City into a no-kill community by 2015.

www.AnimalAllianceNYC.org

Media Contacts

Jessica Del Guercio

M. Silver Associates

Phone: (212) 754-6500 x237

E-mail: jessica@msilver-pr.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

NYC Artists Help Shelter Pets: The Art Dogs & Cats of NY Exhibit Featuring Local Artists' Hand-Painted, Cast-Stone Cat and Dog Statues Launches This Month

Proceeds from the sales of statues to be donated to five participating organizations of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals^®

New York, NY – Wednesday, September 8, 2010 – This October, as animal lovers across the country celebrate National Adopt-A-Dog Month, "The Art Dogs & Cats of NY (AD&CNY)," an art exhibition featuring 12 unique, hand-painted cast-stone statues of dogs and cats donated by local artists will help raise funds for five of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals' Participating Organizations (APOs), including A Tail at a Time, Bideawee, Ready for Rescue, Stray from the Heart, and Waggin' Train Rescue. View the entire exhibit here: www.ArtDogsandCatsofNY.com.

This exciting new exhibit is sponsored by the PetHealthStore, located at 440 Amsterdam Avenue (at 81st Street) in Manhattan, where the inspiring cast-stone dogs and cats will be on exhibit from Wednesday, September 8, through Thursday, October 21. The stone statues will be auctioned off at a special reception on October 21. All proceeds from the silent auction will be donated to the five designated Mayor's Alliance Participating Organizations. The Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals is a coalition of more than 150 rescue groups and shelters working together to end the killing of healthy and treatable cats and dogs at New York City's Animal Care & Control shelters by 2015.

A special preview of the exhibit will be on display at the Mayor's Alliance's Adoptapalooza adoption event on Sunday, September 12, in Washington Square Park, from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

The AD&CNY project was conceptualized earlier this year when the team at PetHealthStore, trusted members and advocates of the city's pet owner community for more than 30 years, set out to raise awareness of the growing problem of animal homelessness in New York.

"This has been a labor of love for everyone involved: the artists, the rescue groups, and our business," said James Zimmerman, AD&CNY's Project Coordinator. "PetHealthStore is focused on keeping pets healthy, as are these rescue groups, who selflessly foster and adopt cats and dogs who otherwise might be euthanized. We hope that pet lovers from all over the metro New York City area will come visit and view these 12 beautiful works of art — and bid for this worthy cause."

Zimmerman and his colleagues at PetHealthStore spent months reviewing the works of hundreds of artists who wished to participate. In the end, they commissioned twelve talented and very different NYC area artists, each donating his or her skills to create an individual statue. The result is an amazing display of artistic creativity that will delight art- and animal-lovers alike.

For more information and to view the full exhibit, please visit www.ArtDogsandCatsofNY.com.

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