Independence Animal Shelter in Independence, Mo. Tops Midwest Region After First Month of ASPCA $100K Challenge

NEW YORK--The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today announced that Independence Animal Shelter in Independence, Mo. is at the top of the leaderboard in the Midwest Region of the 2011 ASPCA $100K Challenge, as 348 pets were adopted or reunited with their owners during the first thirty days of the three-month competition, an increase of 137 lives saved over the same month last year. Forty-nine shelters from 33 states and territories across the United States are working to increase lives saved in order to win some of the $300,000 in ASPCA prize grants, including a grand prize of $100,000.

During the first month of the ASPCA $100K Challenge, many contestants tried out new methods of driving traffic to their adoption centers - many stayed open around the clock for 24-hour adoption events, offered unique promotions and discounts on adoption fees, and more.

"Independence Animal Shelter immediately introduced fee-waived adoptions as they kicked off the contest, the results of which were really positive. They reported 47 adoptions in one day for their first adoption event of the contest, when back before the contest got underway just a month earlier, they had adopted out only 89 animals in the entire month of July," said Bert Troughton, vice president of community outreach for the ASPCA.

In addition to Independence Animal Shelter, contestants in the Midwest Region for the 2011 ASPCA $100K Challenge are: Animal Rescue League of Iowa, Inc. in Des Moines, Iowa; Animal House Shelter, Inc. in Huntley, Ill.; Humane Society for Hamilton County in Noblesville, Ind.; Indianapolis Animal Care and Control in Indianapolis, Ind.; and Dane County Humane Society in Madison, Wis.

During the 2011 ASPCA $100K Challenge, contestants will compete to save at least 300 more animals--during the months of August, September, and October 2011--than they did over the same three-month period in 2010. The shelter with the biggest increase in animals saved will win a $100,000 grant. The agency that gets the most community members involved in saving animals will win a $25,000 grant, and those organizations that do the best in their regions will be eligible for between $5,000 and $25,000 in grants. In last year's first-ever ASPCA $100K Challenge, contestants saved a total of 48,779 lives over three months - an increase of 7,362 lives over the same three months in 2009.

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 contest, please visit http://challenge.aspcapro.org. To locate a 2011 ASPCA $100K Challenge contestant near you, please visit http://challenge.aspcapro.org/challenge/contestants. To see a complete list of 2011 $100K Challenge events as they are scheduled, please stay tuned to http://challenge.aspcapro.org/shelter/events/all throughout the contest.