Imagine having no money but a very hungry dog or cat to feed. Unfortunately, this sad scenario is happening all over the country, with many heartbreaks for both our four-legged friends and their owners. “Since the economy took a turn for the worse, we’ve seen a lot more animal surrenders,” says Tricia Sebes, volunteer and rescue coordinator for the McKamey Animal Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “The reason is definitely increasing that people can’t afford to feed their pets.”

We needed to help. Earlier this month, with the help of Freekibble.com, Halo donated almost 6,000 cans of Spot’s Stew to McKamey and two other shelters and rescues in Tennessee, which have been distributing the food to pet owners in need.

“We are absolutely thrilled to do it,” says Lisa Reeves of the Nashville Humane Association, which gives out their Halo Spot’s Stew every Sunday and Wednesday. “If we have (the food) and we can help someone, we will. We try not to turn anyone away.”

In addition to the food, all three organizations (the third is A New Leash on Life in Lebanon) received a variety of other Halo products, including Herbal Healing Salve and X-tra C, an instant vitamin C powder.

“It makes me feel great to know that this food is getting to people who really need help feeding their animals,” says Mimi Ausland, the 13-year-old founder of Freekibble.com. “I know that because of this, people will be able to keep their pets and feed them a really good food.”

The Nashville Humane Association first started distributing food in November, 2008, and since then have helped some 500 families keep their pets. “I think it’s hard for some of these people to come in,”
says Reeves. “You have families who never had to ask for help, and now they do.

“People have been in tears, they’ve said, ‘I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here,’” Reeves continues. “It’s sad, i think pride gets in the way of some people but they have to come in and do it.”

On November 5th, Freekibble.com had a Hi-5 promotion: for every trivia question someone answered about a dog or cat, 50 pieces of of kibble would be donated by Halo. That day, some 60,000 people played Freekibble.com, raising 5 million pieces of kibble, or the equivalent of 20,000 Meals of Halo. And the need to help these financially-strapped pet owners continues to grow.

At McKamey Animal Center, there has not been the usual post-holiday slowdown in animal surrenders, says Sebes, noting that the 26,000-square-foot shelter now has 288 dogs and puppies, 455 animals in all. McKamey has shared the donation with two local food banks to reach more pet parents in need. “They’re very grateful we have this a service to them,” says Sebes. “People come to us for help with their animals and it’s great we can provide for them.”

Back in August, in collaboration with freekibble.com, Halo, Purely for Pets donated 46,000 pounds of dog dry Spot’s Stew to 24 shelters and rescues in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. It’s a gift still making a difference.

At City of Catoosa Animal Control, shelter director Darla Procter has saved the donation with the thrift of a squirrel secreting away precious food for the winter. “I’ve been trying to hold out,” says Procter, director of the Ringold, Georgia-based shelter, which received between 2,500 and 3,000 pounds of food for the county-run facility, with 60 dogs and 30 cats at a time.

The dogs usually eat donated but low-quality food; receiving Halo was like going from a fast-food joint to meals at a four-star restaurant. “They liked it, they didn’t turn their nose up one bit,” says Procter. “It was fantastic (to receive the donation). A problem with shelters in general is that food is where the vast majority of your money goes. This frees up money that goes to medication (and other animal care).”

The Orlando, Florida-based Superior Mutts’ Christopher Murphy shared his 1,500 pounds of Spot’s Stew with several other rescues. The dogs at Murphy’s house — where he keeps hard-to-adopt mutts — “scarfed that stuff down like they hadn’t eaten in weeks,” he says, noting that due to financial constraints he must buy generic brands that they don’t enjoy as much.

One of the Halo beneficiaries was Trooper, a blind and deaf Dalmation-Great Dane mix that Murphy was fostering when the food was delivered. “When you are blind and deaf,” says Murphy, “it makes eating yummy food all the more important. It was nice to see him enjoy the higher-end Halo with his foster brothers and sisters.”

Murphy, a paralegal who devotes his spare time to rescuing strays, drives hundreds of miles every weekend transporting homeless pets from shelters to rescues, who then find them homes. One of the rescues he frequents is Sanctuary Animal Refuge in Clewiston, Fl., run by Palena Dorsey, a legal secretary who organized the donations to the two dozen rescues. “She’s amazing,” says Murphy. “She’s my inspiration.”

Examiner.com helped promote the Hi-5 event Halo sponsored for Freekibble.com.

The writer explained, “During Freekibble Hi-5, five times the normal amount of kibble (50 pieces) will be donated to shelters for each person that plays Bow-wow trivia. It’s free and easy to participate. You don’t even have to answer the trivia question correctly; just take a guess at the answer and you will provide 50 pieces of kibble to dogs in need.”

They were kind enough to say, “In addition to a $20,000 donation that was presented to Mimi and Freekibble on The Ellen Show, Halo Pets is sponsoring the Hi-5 event.”

Click over to our News page for the whole story.

Today, Freekibble will launch ‘Kibble Katch,’ a game where playing results in the donation of additional Halo food to animal shelters. Upon launch of Kibble Katch, Halo promises to donate 1,000 pieces of kibble per purchased application (four full and nutritious meals), to Freekibble.com to donate to shelters dogs.

We’re so proud to sponsor this ground-breaking iPhone game, the first that we know of resulting in a REAL donation when you play.

Of course, if you don’t have an iPhone or iTouch, don’t worry! You can follow @halopets and @freekibble on Twitter and we’ll donate two meals to deserving shelter pets. And you can visit www.freekibble.com and www.freekibblekat.com every day to help generate even more donations for shelter pets.

Click here to read our press release on Kibble Katch, sponsored by Halo.

Click here for a demo, and to download the game.

“Shelters are one of the saddest places to walk into, but for really lucky people it can be one of the happiest places to walk back out of. Why? For those lucky people, like me, you find a best friend staring back at you from the inside of a cage.”

So writes 14-year-old Alexa Wirfs about finding her cat Chaz, a flame point Siamese, who had lived at SafeHaven Humane Society in Albany, Oregon. Alexa’s moving essay for Freekibble.com’s Kibble Krusaders Kontest made her shelter a winner of $1,000 worth of Halo Dinner Party.

“It feels really good to help the pets at the shelter,” she says. “I don’t know how I would feel day after day waiting to be taken home to a special place.”

Yet Alexa’s motivation to write the essay was not just to help the cats and dogs at SafeHaven. “I want to let other kids know,” she says, “that they can make their own difference in the world with animals.”

This sentiment clearly moved Christiana Gunderson, director of operations at SafeHaven. “It’s a big deal to us for a kid to take it upon herself to do this for the animals,” says Gunderson, whose shelter has over 1,200 dog and cat adoptions annually. “I think that was great.” Gunderson has set aside the Halo gift for “pets who are depressed or whose appetite is down,” she says. “I have a foster dog right now and put it on his food to entice him to eat.”

Alexa, a ninth-grader from Lebanon, Oregon, feels the pain of animals like Gunderson’s foster dog. Despite wanting to volunteer at her shelter, she finds it difficult to visit. “When I see the animals begging at their doors, I want to take them all home,” she says. “I say, ‘Mom, please let me take them home, they all need a home.’

“I don’t like seeing a hurt animal because it hurts me,” continues Alexa, who would love to find a job working with cats that pays well. “I’m a quiet person outward, but inward I want to doalot of things, I just don’t know where to start.”

Her freekibble.com essay, however, is a good start. Its ending — “The friendly staff and volunteers at SafeHaven complete families.” — won the heart of freekibble.com founder Mimi Ausland, 13.

“I love that last sentence, that really touched me and my mom and dad, that the friendly staff complete families, shelters like SafeHaven and other shelters do complete families,” says Mimi. “It makes you want to go to SafeHaven now, and see if you can find your new friend. It is really touching.”

Click here to read Alexa’s entire essay.