No Kill Gift Giving: Outside the Box

My local no kill shelter, Animal Protection League of SC, has a wonderful gift idea for the pet loving friends and family on your Christmas list. From their newsletter:

Honor Loved Ones This Holiday Season with a Black Pearl Gift

Make a donation in someone’s honor or memory, and we will send your gift for you.

The APL holiday sponsorship program is focusing once again this year on our Black Pearls—those beautiful, lovable black dogs and cats who end up in shelters across the country in disproportionate numbers and who are statistically more likely to be euthanized than their brown, gray, orange, white, or mottled counterparts.

The APL has worked for years to draw attention to the plight of our own Black Pearls. In 2007, we even won a grant from Maddie’s Fund for dramatically reducing the black cat and dog population at our shelter through adoption.

By giving Black Pearl gifts this holiday season, you can honor or memorialize a loved one, bring attention to the plight of these precious animals, and support the mission of the APL—all at once!

This year, we have two Black Pearl gift options: for a donation of $50 or more, we will send your honoree either a two-toned cotton tote bag (19" x 15" x 6") with the Black Pearl logo printed on both sides or a shirt, black or white, with an embroidered Black Pearl logo in the contrasting color. Each gift comes with a letter explaining the Black Pearl program.

To honor or memorialize someone, fill out the sponsorship form and mail it in along with your donation. Order by December 19 to ensure local delivery by Christmas. Out-of-town deliveries may take longer.

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Another swell gift idea comes from Pets Alive, a no kill shelter in NY:

Want to give someone the gift of a dog this holiday season, without the responsibility of feeding, walking, and cleaning up after the dog? Did you know that shelters fill up in January with puppies and kittens that have been abandoned by people who can't handle the responsibility of caring for them?

We have the answer. With GiveADog you can give someone you love the joy of following one of our rescued dogs on his or her journey from being alone in a shelter or foster home to the Pets Alive Animal Sanctuary facility to his or her forever home.

The person who receives your gift gets a thank you card and when they choose their dog, a beautiful certificate announcing that they have saved that dog.

They also get an account at GiveADog where they can go to follow the progress of their dog. Once or twice a week they will get email updates about their dog as he or she embarks on the journey to a forever home. Their personal page has the current status of their dog, pictures of their dog, notes about their dog and a place to communicate with us about their dog. They can even see videos of their dog.

I love hearing about innovative ways no kill shelters help pets all year round. If you hear of others, please share.