Zootoo Offers Shelter Makeover Valued at Up to $1,000,000! - Fall/Holiday 2007 - Out of the Cage!, the E-Newsletter of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

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Zootoo Offers Shelter Makeover Valued at Up to $1,000,000!

If your organization operates an animal shelter, or if you want to help an animal shelter in your community, Zootoo has a program just for you! From now through March 31, 2008, shelters across the country will be vying for the top prize — a shelter makeover valued at up to $1 million — to be awarded by Zootoo House.

Zootoo House is a new organization dedicated to renovating needy and deserving animal shelters. Zootoo House and its companion web site, Zootoo.com, were created by Richard Thompson, former CEO and "Top Cat" of The Meow Mix Company. While working there, Mr. Thompson donated hundreds of thousands of pounds of cat food to animal shelters across the country. He also visited many of the shelters, and came to see firsthand the overwhelming challenges most shelters face, including over-crowded facilities, insufficient exercise space, and shortages of nutritious food.

So Mr. Thompson decided to take action. He created Zootoo House to generate awareness of shelters within their communities, to support shelters in their efforts to save lives, and to help them acquire funding. "It is my mission to improve the condition of animal shelters and make going to an animal shelter a more positive aspect of adopting animals," he says.

With that, Mr. Thompson launched the first-ever shelter makeover program in America — Zootoo House Shelter Makeover. Through this program, he will provide funding to 20 animal shelters across the country to make structural improvements. One of these shelters will receive a shelter makeover, valued at up to $1 million. Another will receive a $10,000 award, and 18 shelters will receive $5,000 each for shelter improvements.

To alert shelters to the makeover program, Mr. Thompson mailed information packages to hundreds of shelters nationwide. The package explains how the program works, how a shelter can enter the competition, and how to earn points toward becoming one of the 20 semi-finalists eligible to win a prize.

•	If your shelter received the package, we encourage you to participate in the Shelter Makeover Program.
•	If your organization operates a shelter and you did not receive a package, you can contact Zootoo at makeover@zootoo.com or call 1-877-580-7387 to request one.
•	If you want to help your favorite shelter win a makeover, log on to www.zootoo.com/makeover and select the shelter of your choice. Then join the Zootoo community, and come back again and again to the Zootoo web site to rate and review pet products and services or upload pictures and videos. The more you participate, the more points will add up for your favorite shelter, and increase its chances of being selected as one of the 20 semi-finalist shelters.

To find out more about the Zootoo House Shelter Makeover Program, please visit www.zootoo.com/makeover.