Congratulations to the Central California SPCA in Fresno for winning the fifth and final year of the Rachael Ray $100K Challenge, which pitted 50 shelters across the country against each other in an effort to save more animals during the summer of 2014 than they did over the same time period in 2013.

CCSPCA’s website cites the following accomplishments achieved during the Challenge:

• Saved nearly 3,000 animals’ lives!
• Led the nation in lives saved for 2 months – June & July.
• August 31 had the most adoptions ever recorded in a single day – 94. 42 of those 94 were offsite.
• Last week of August (25-31) had the most adoptions ever recorded in a single week. 334 adoptions were made with 66 of those being offsite.
• Both July adoptions of 757 and August adoptions of 1087 surpassed any previous month’s adoptions ever recorded.
• Most adoption spay/neuter surgeries performed in one day ever recorded – 74 on July 25.
• Most spay/neuter surgeries in one month ever recorded – 969 in August.
• But one of our MOST IMPORTANT accomplishments was that no euthanasia was performed for space or time for an entire 3 months!

Way to go , Fresno!

Since 2010, hundreds of contestants have dedicated themselves to this three month contest to increase their adoption numbers over the same period the previous year. In this final year of the challenge, the competing shelters saved more than 68,000 lives in just three months. In five years total, challengers saved more than a QUARTER OF A MILLION lives – an increase of nearly 60,000 cats and dogs – with dozens of animal shelters increasing their adoptions by 100% or more compared to previous years.

Kudos to all 50 of the shelters who participated in the challenge.

Until next time,

Good day, and good dog!