Pet Partners Announces National Partnership with PetSmart, Inc.
Online, April 1, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Pet Partners' Therapy Animal Program registers and supports volunteers with their pets as therapy teams to visit people in hospitals, nursing homes, schools and other facilities in their community. The organization offers top quality national visiting pet programs with training opportunities that prepare our volunteers to succeed.
Pet Partners is committed to creating training tools relevant to the situations, individuals and challenges our volunteers may be faced with as they conduct animal-assisted interactions. PetSmart's sponsorship will help support enhanced training and continuing education to 11,000 volunteer therapy animal teams.
"Pet Partners is proud to partner with the world-renowned retailer, PetSmart," said Brenda Bax, Pet Partners Board Chair. "We hope to further develop this relationship with the intent of benefiting the clients we serve, our volunteers and the animals that give us all comfort and happiness."
PetSmart was able to provide this donation through its PetSmart Gives Back initiative. PetSmart Gives Back partners with national and local organizations that enrich the lives of people through the power of pets.
"At PetSmart, caring about pets, people and our communities is at the heart of everything we do," said David Lenhardt, PetSmart Chief Executive Officer. "We're proud to partner with Pet Partners in an effort to help more people heal through the power of pets."
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About Pet Partners
Pet Partners, established in Portland, Oregon as Delta Society in 1977, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to demonstrating and promoting positive human-animal interactions which improve the physical, emotional and psychological lives of those they serve. Each year, Pet Partners' nearly 11,000 therapy animal teams visit more than 1 million people across North America. For more information, visit www.petpartners.org. Pet Partners Caring Companies Program offers corporations the opportunity to support the mission of promoting the benefits of the human-animal bond. For more information, including a detailed benefits grid for membership levels, please visit www.petpartners.org/CaringCompanies.
About PetSmart
PetSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ: PETM) is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. The company employs approximately 53,000 associates and operates more than 1,333 pet stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, over 199 in-store PetSmart® PetsHotel® dog and cat boarding facilities and is a leading online provider of pet supplies and pet care information (http://www.petsmart.com). PetSmart provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and pet products; and offers dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart Doggie Day Camp SM day care services and pet adoption services. Through its in-store pet adoption partnership with PetSmart Charities® and PetSmart Charities® of Canada, PetSmart has helped save the lives of more than 5.7 million pets since 1994. PetSmart Charities, Inc. and PetSmart Charities of Canada (collectively "PetSmart Charities") are independent, nonprofit organizations that save the lives of homeless pets and reduce shelter intake through spay and neuter efforts. In 2013, nearly 440,000 dogs and cats found homes through PetSmart Charities' adoption centers in all PetSmart stores and by sponsoring community adoption events. PetSmart Charities is the leader in granting money to help pets in need, with more than $34 million given in 2013 throughout North America.
