In the network of Adopt A Boxer Rescue foster homes scattered around the Northeast live about 70 homeless dogs eating like kings, thanks to Halo’s recent donation of 5,808 cans of Spot’s Stew.

“The Halo food is invaluable, its high quality helps us to nurture our many sick and neglected dogs back to health,” says Kim Barnett of Madison, Ct., a dog behavior consultant currently fostering two dogs (see photos) for the rescue. “And the food absolutely enables you to open your home to more dogs. Everyone considers their financial condition when they consider fostering a dog.”

The donation couldn’t have come at a better time for the all-volunteer group, says Barnett.

Adopt A Boxer Rescue had been receiving several tons of top quality all-natural food every month from a wholesaling company that could not sell its torn or out-of-date bags, Barnett says. Just before Christmas, the company decided to sell the food to Amish farmers who have puppy mills — inhumane breeding facilities that keep dogs caged their entire lives for the sole purpose of producing puppies.

Ironically, Adopt A Boxer Rescue saves many boxers from the mills, dogs who are ill or who can no longer produce puppies. “They (the farmer) will call us and say, ‘Do you want to come and get this dog in the next half hour before I shoot it?’” Barnett says, noting that many of the dogs saved from the mills are unable to walk well because they have spent their entire lives enclosed in a wire-floored cage. For the company to begin selling the food to the Amish puppy millers “was an emotional slap in the face,” Barnett says.

However, the dogs are more than content with their new menu. There is Eve, the rescue’s white boxer who has a genetic defect preventing her from swallowing properly; when Eve was rescued she looked like a tiny, hairless rabbit. “It’s been a long haul to get her to get weight on,” says Barnett, noting that Eve would oftentimes throw up due to her ailment.

Eve now dines on three large cans of Spot’s Stew a day. “It’s doing wonders for her,” says Barnett. “You want to feed a dog like Eve the least amount of food possible, so the higher the quality the less she needs to eat, and because of the consistency it is easier for Eve to swallow the food. She is getting maximum nutrition in an easy-to-swallow formula.”

Each year, Adopt A Boxer Rescue finds permanent homes for some 400 dogs, and have helped thousands of pups get a new life. The group has dogs up for adoption in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.