Austin Pets Alive! in Austin, Texas Wins Grand Prize in ASPCA $100K Challenge

NEW YORK-- The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today announced that Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) in Austin, Texas, has won the grand prize in the 2011 ASPCA $100K Challenge and will receive a $100,000 grant from the ASPCA. APA! found homes for 1,673 pets during the three-month competition, an increase of 850 lives saved over the same period last year and more than any other contestant. Forty-nine shelters from 33 states and territories across the United States worked to increase the number of animals saved in order to win a portion of the $300,000 in ASPCA prize grants, including the grand prize of $100,000.

"APA! staff and volunteers put on wildly creative events and promotions and worked tirelessly to place animals in spite of the formidable odds that Mother Nature sent their way this summer," said Bert Troughton, vice president of community outreach for the ASPCA. "They used the $100K Challenge to increase foster families, supporters and adopters--all of which will make it possible to continue to help animals in Austin--which is what the contest is all about."

During the 2011 ASPCA $100K Challenge, contestants competed to save at least 300 more animals during the months of August, September, and October 2011--either by adoption or being reunited with their owners--than they did over the same three-month period in 2010.

In addition to APA!'s grand prize win, the ASPCA today is awarding the following prizes in the 2011 ASPCA $100K Challenge:

• $25K 2nd Place Prize and $20K Southeast Regional Prize: Humane Society of South Mississippi in Gulfport, Miss., for having the second biggest increase in lives saved and the biggest increase in the Southeast region;
• $25K Community Engagement Award: Humane Society for Greater Savannah in Savannah, Ga., for doing the best job of getting its community involved in saving more animals;
• $20K Northeast Regional Prize: Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston, Maine, for having the biggest increase in lives saved in the Northeast region;
• $20K Midwest Regional Prize: City of Independence Animal Services in Independence, Mo., for having the biggest increase in lives saved in the Midwest region; and
• $20K West Regional Prize: Ramona Humane Society in San Jacinto, Calif., for having the biggest increase in lives saved in the West region.

This year, ASPCA $100K Challenge contestants saved a total of 8,977 more animals as compared to the same three-month period in 2010. In total, 2011 $100K Challenge contestants saved 52,484 lives in just three months.

It has long been a priority of the ASPCA to create a country of humane communities where there is no more euthanasia of homeless animals simply because of a lack of space or the resources to adequately care for them. The ASPCA $100K Challenge builds on that goal by inspiring shelters and their communities to innovate and act to save more animals. For more information about the 2012 ASPCA $100K Challenge, please stay tuned to http://challenge.aspcapro.org.