Hilary Swank Named Ambassador for Pet Adoption Campaign

Hilary Swank, a two-time Academy Award-winning actress, is this year’s ambassador for Iams Home 4 the Holidays Pet Adoption Campaign. Swank will share her personal experience with adoption and rescue in an effort to help educate others about how they can make a positive impact on the lives of homeless pets. Along with founding partner Helen Woodward Animal Center and nearly 3,500 participating animal organizations from around the world, the campaign has set a goal to help 1.5 million pets find homes from now through Jan. 4, 2010.

“I’m so proud to be working with Iams Home 4 the Holidays to help raise awareness about the importance of  pet adoption,” says Swank. “Last year, the program’s adoption goal was to get 1 million pets adopted in just three months, but this year the goal is even bigger; we’re on a mission to find loving homes for 1.5 million orphaned pets between Oct. 1 and Jan. 4.” 

Swank has adopted many pets throughout her life, including her two dogs Karoo and Rumi. She rescued Karoo from the side of a road while filming in South Africa a few years ago and adopted Rumi last fall from a participating Iams Home 4 the Holidays shelter in Los Angeles.

 “Now more than ever orphaned animals need our help and who better to give them a voice than Hilary?” says Mike Arms, founder of Iams Home 4 the Holidays and president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center. “Along with Hilary and her inspiration, our 3,500 animal organizations are working to shine a big spotlight on the need to help the nearly 8 million homeless pets in our country, and are committed to helping raise awareness about the importance of pet adoption.”

Iams Home 4 the Holidays is dedicated to helping homeless pets. The program has placed more than 3 million animals in homes since 1999, and in 2008, the adoption drive found homes for 1,202,718 pets.

Hilary Swank is a friend to shelter animals.

Your Comments:

Andrew Garfinkel wrote:
Hilary Swank is so great – can’t wait for her new movie (based on the life of Amelia Earhart) to open.
10/26/2009 8:59 AM Janet Huey wrote:
This sounds like a great program; however is it actually detrimental to pets. In addition to adding to impulse adoptions, pets should not be gifts. More importantly, cold weather means it is the lowest overpopulation time of the year. Shelters in the south actually run out of puppies and kittens in December. In the summer, shelters are stacked almost to the ceiling with crates of puppies and kittens. How much better is it for animals if the emphasis was on “Get your Holiday pet in July?” I understand it isn’t the emotional high for humans that it is in December, but so many more animals would be saved. Home for the Holidays is an excellent example of the Law of Unintended Consequences.The more pets adopted/bought this holiday season means more animals euthanized next summer. I would love to see Christmas trees in the summer with pictures of puppies and kittens with the Iams promotion.–From Janet Huey