Bayer and Adopt-a-Pet.com Help Champion Healthy Pet Adoptions With Expanded Grant Program

KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Odessa, a stray mixed-breed pup who gave birth to a litter on the side of the road, was found on the street, covered in parasites and emaciated. The poor girl lost all her babies and was near death herself. The good people at Nuzzles & Co. rescued Odessa and got her back to health, thanks in part to the Bayer Treated with Love grant provided by Adopt-a-Pet.com. Today, Odessa has a forever home with a loving family.

"She beat the odds — she's a survivor," says Kathleen Woren, president of Nuzzles & Co., "and now she's been adopted into a 'forever family' and she's happy and thriving. That's what keeps us going. We know that there are lots of other Odessas out there. We're going to try and save as many of them as we possibly can."

Bayer Animal Health and Adopt-a-Pet.com are helping more pets like Odessa and more shelters like Nuzzles & Co. through an expanded Treated with Love grant program. In 2017 Bayer teamed up with Adopt-a-Pet.com – the nation's largest nonprofit pet adoption website – to create the Treated with Love grant program, giving shelters and rescues across the United States $20,000 in product, including Advantage^® II flea prevention for cats and K9 Advantix^® II flea, tick and mosquito prevention for dogs. This year, Bayer and Adopt-a-Pet.com are working together again to reach even more organizations and help more pets.

The 2018 Treated with Love program will expand to grant $75,000 of product, including Advantage II, K9 Advantix II and Seresto^® flea and tick collars. Grants will be awarded to deserving shelters and rescues within the Adopt-a-Pet.com network, which includes more than 17,000 organizations.

"The shelters and rescue centers that benefit from the Treated with Love grants play a vital role in caring for cats and dogs while they are waiting to be adopted," said David Van Brunt, Vice President, Companion Animal Products, Bayer Animal Health. "We are honored to partner with Adopt-a-Pet.com to help promote healthy pet adoptions and to equip organizations with tools they need to provide the best possible care."

Power to the Pet Owners
Consumers will also be able to get involved in the Treated with Love grants this year through  Adopt-a-Pet.com's People's Choice Award. Between March 22 and April 19, 2018, animal lovers can nominate an animal organization of their choice within the U.S. Adopt-a-Pet.com network by uploading a pet photo to their personal Instagram account, mentioning the name of a shelter or rescue they support, and including the hashtags #TreatedwithLovebyBayer and #Contest. On April 23, Adopt-a-Pet.com will announce 20 finalist organizations that will be eligible to receive either $4,000 or $1,000 in Seresto product. Consumers will then have the opportunity to vote for their favorite organization on the Adopt-a-Pet.com website at http://adoptapet.com/blog/treated-with-love-peoples-choice between April 23 and May 7. 

The organization with the most votes will receive $4,000 in Seresto flea and tick prevention collars. Adopt-a-Pet.com will randomly select one of the remaining finalist organizations to receive $1,000 worth of Seresto.

"Bayer's longstanding support of Adopt-a-Pet.com has allowed us to aid shelters and rescues in their efforts to care for homeless pets," said David Meyer, CEO and co-founder of Adopt-aPet.com. "The Treated with Love program received so much positive feedback in 2017 and for us, extending the program to involve consumers provides a great opportunity to help protect even more shelter pets from fleas and ticks, encourage adoptions, highlight our love for our pets and thank the organizations that bring them into our lives." 

Animal lovers can get involved in this campaign by:

1. Uploading original pet photos tagged with #TreatedwithLovebyBayer and #Contest on Instagram and nominating an animal shelter or rescue in the Adopt-a-Pet.com U.S. network
2. Voting on the top 20 finalists from the People's Choice Award campaign.
3. Sharing their favorite submissions or grant recipient stories to their social media accounts.

Pet owners are encouraged to share photos of their pets and to frequently check http://adoptapet.com/blog/treated-with-love-peoples-choice to see if their photos are featured on the Treated with Love campaign page.

About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Its products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen. In fiscal 2017, the Group employed around 99,800 people and had sales of EUR 35.0 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to EUR 2.4 billion, R&D expenses to EUR 4.5 billion. For more information, go to www.bayer.us.

To learn more about Bayer Animal Health, please visit www.petbasics.com  
Follow Bayer Animal Health on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bayer4pets
Follow Bayer Animal Health on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bayer4Pets  

About Adopt-a-Pet.com
Adopt-a-Pet.com is North America's largest nonprofit pet adoption website, helping over 18,000 animal shelters, humane societies, SPCAs, pet rescue groups, and pet adoption agencies advertise their purebred and mixed breed pets for free to millions of adopters each month.

Sponsored by the pet lovers at Purina, the Petco Foundation, Petco, and Bayer Animal Health LLC, Adopt-a-Pet.com helps homeless dogs, cats, and even rabbits and other animals go from alone to adopted.

To learn more about Adopt-a-Pet.com please visit: www.adoptapet.com
Follow Adopt-a-Pet.com on Instagram: https://instagram.com/adoptapetcom  
Follow Adopt-a-Pet.com on Twitter: https://twitter.com/adoptapetcom  
Like Adopt-a-Pet.com's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Adoptapetcom/  

Media Contact:
Bayer Animal Health
Lauren Dorsch, Tel. 913.827.6306
Email: [email protected]   

Adopt-a-Pet.com
Frances Vega, Tel. 818.927.1643
Email: [email protected]  

Trozzolo Communications Group
Christina Renfroe, Tel. 816.842.8111
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Bayer