Mimi Ausland, the young teen celebrity creator of Freekibble.com, and her dad Kelly helped connect Halo to Safe Haven Adoption in Alabama. Safe Haven “rescues pets who have been abandoned, abused or surrendered. More than 2,000 animals have been saved and given a new life.”

We’re thrilled to be of some help. Aldready, there’s a nice article about the donation in The Clarion. There’s a link to the story here. Enjoy!

Watch Ellen every day in August and you could win a VIP trip to Hollywood or a one-year supply of Halo pet food!

Starting today, August 3, Halo co-owner Ellen DeGeneres will have pets on her show. Name the pet correctly and you will be entered in a random drawing for the two big prizes and for daily prizes — a $50 Halo gift certificate and a special Ellen prize pack.

The grand prize trip to Hollywood is for you and a human friend, and includes VIP tickets to a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, top-notch pampering while you are in town, and a $100 gift card so your pet can be pampered, too!

Click here for more information and to play.

A few months ago, a young girl wrote to Ellen DeGeneres, a part-owner of Halo, about how her family gathers around the TV to watch Ellen’s show together, a family activity that keeps the family close. She wrote to Ellen about how hard her parents work, and just needed a break.

Click here to find out what Ellen did for the family.

During these hard times, some people write in asking for help feeding their pets. Some of the stories break our hearts, and we’re busy giving as much as we possibly can to shelters and pantries helping out people and pets.

Recently, Ellen DeGeneres started her own program to help some deserving families down on their luck – Ellen’s Big Stimulus Package. So of course, we wanted to be a part of it. Ellen’s had a number of episodes where she’s given away money and Halo. Here’s one great example with Brandy from Pennsylvania – who has been known to feed her dog Bo rather than feeding herself.

Watch the Ellen Big Stimulus Package video here!

At a magical place in southern Utah live dogs and cats, bunnies and pigs, and an assortment of other animals, all there because they were once thrown out, abused, abandoned, or neglected. This is the sanctuary of Best Friends Animal Society, where, when a lucky animal gains entry, his or her life is forever changed for the good.

On 90 acres of the 33,000-acre property, the largest animal sanctuary of its kind in America, is a kingdom of dogs called DogTown. Here, dogs once chained to pieces of metal outdoors all day and all night, like those of football player Michael Vick who bred and fought pitbulls, find a new life. Halo thinks so highly of the great works of Best Friends that it donated 3,599 cases — or 43,188 cans — of Spot’s Stew for its 400-plus dogs.

“We do receive substantial donations on a regular basis but this one topped the scales a little bit,” says John Garcia, DogTown’s manager and a star on the National Geographic series DogTown that documents the works at this doggie university. “In order to feed over 400 dogs, it has to be quite a bit. It really helped. The dogs really love it too, it’s a good-quality dog food.”

Three dogs who recently arrived at Best Friends were severely malnourished and had a hard time eating. “It was very difficult to find a good quality food that they would actually enjoy,” Garcia says. He ended up combining Spot’s Stew with the dry kibble Best Friends uses. “So far they have put on so much weight,” he says, “it’s unbelievable.”

Halo also donated five cases of Liv-a-Littles treats, which Garcia uses for training. “They’re absolutely phenomenal,” he says. “This past week, three dogs in particular I’ve been working with, I’ve had trouble finding a certain thing they really really love, as soon as I brought them Liv-a-Littles it made my life alot easier. The Liv-a-Littles are motivating everyone at this point. Every dog has loved them so far.”

The treats have also provided some dogs a sense of comfort.

“I was working with a dog the other day who literally had just come into us, and the dog was very scared, and unfortunately because of the environment, they don’t realize we’re there to help them,” Garcia says. “It’s a very scary place– the sights, the sounds, the smells. And with the Liv-a-Littles we are able to go in and do a little treat trail and it helps show the dog we’re here to help them.

“It’s building a relationship with the dog,” he continues. “We take in very difficult cases sometimes, and we want to make sure we have every available treat or motivation for the dog.”

Garcia, who has twice been a guest on The Ellen Show, feeds Spot’s Stew to his own two dogs and one foster pup. Spikey Doo, who is having some health issues, doesn’t have a good appetite. But with Spot’s Stew, “it really helps out alot,” he says, “she just mouths her food down. Having something so good, they want to eat it, it helps them gain weight, it helps them get healthy.”