Kitsap Humane Society got a BIG (and we mean BIG!!!) surprise  this week, thanks to the Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Network and the Blue Buffalo pet food company. Blue Buffalo had reached out to Best Friends interested in helping out animal welfare groups around the country with hundreds of thousands of pounds of free pet food. Best Friends in turn selected shelters from their No Homeless Pets Network to be recipients of the generous donation. Kitsap Humane Society has been a Best Friends partner for about three years, and we have worked closely with the No More Homeless Pets Network on adoption promotions and rescuing at-risk animals from across Washington state.  Our Best Friends Regional Specialist notified us that we would be getting 37,000 pounds of Blue Buffalo pet food delivered on Wednesday, July 1st, and so we jumped into high gear to get prepared.

What was our plan for all that food? KHS has a small pet food pantry for low-income pet owners, so some of the donations would be used to fill up the pantry. A few hundred more pounds of the donated food would go to our wonderful foster parents, who open their homes temporarily to shelter pets in need. But that still left tens of thousands of pounds of pet food ready to be used. As the only open admission cat and dog shelter in Kitsap County, we consider ourselves a community resource, and knew that this donation could go a long way in helping the people and pets in our area. Through our Rescue Me program, which transfers at-risk animals from shelters, we also have wonderful relationships with many other animal shelters and rescues across the region. KHS reached out to our animal rescue partners and local human food banks and social service agencies to alert them of the donation and organize  pick up times.

When July 1st arrived, the huge tractor trailer pulled in and the reality of the size of the donation really hit us! With an army of volunteers and staff ready to help unload, it turned out that the truck had no lift gate, so each bag had to be individually unloaded and re-stacked. Our team was making good progress, but a forklift would make all the difference. Luckily, an amazing KHS supporter, Tucker Distillery, was just a mile down the road and agreed to stop their work to drive their forklift over and lend a hand! With Tucker Distillery’s help we were able to unload every bag and pallet of pet food in about two hours. KHS also received two pallets of cat and dog treats, which will be used for the shelter animals and given to adopters while supplies last.

On Wednesday afternoon, once the pallets of food had been organized and inventoried, our community partners started to show up for the food distribution. Between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon, fourteen different organizations came to KHS to pick up thousands of pounds of pet food. KHS staff and volunteers helped load each vehicle, and the smiles on the faces of the recipients made all of the hard work and lifting worth it.  A number of the organizations told us that their pantries were totally bare, so this donation couldn’t have come at a better time. This pet food will go a long way in supporting low-income pet owners and shelter pets all around the region, and make a huge difference in our community. The recipients of our food distribution included: Adams County Pet Rescue, Bremerton Foodline, Jefferson County Humane Society, KARE, North Kitsap Fishline, Olympic Peninsula Humane Society, PAWS of Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap, Quincy Animal Shelter, Seattle Humane Society, Senior Dog Lodge, Summit Assistance Dogs, Suquamish Tribe, Tacoma Humane Society and West Sound Wildlife Shelter.

KHS is so thrilled to have received this large donation from Best Friends and Blue Buffalo and to have been able to help out so many other great organizations that serve the people and pets of our area!  If you’re inspired, and want to help support our work as a community resource, visit our Support Us page!