Best in Shelter Announces Winners for First Virtual Dog Show

More than 51,000 Votes Cast for Sixteen Dogs: Four Washington, DC Metro Animal Shelters Vie for $50,000 Grand Prize

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Best in Shelter (www.bestinshelter.org), a nonprofit organization aimed at raising the public's awareness of animal shelters, is pleased to announce the winning dogs of the first virtual dog show.

The Animal Welfare League of Arlington (www.awla.org), the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation (www.lostdogrescue.org), the Washington Animal Rescue League (www.warl.org) and the Washington Humane Society (www.washhumane.org) entered four shelter dogs each, for sixteen dogs in total, and Best In Shelter opened the voting to the public June 14 through June 17. The dog with the most votes won the grand prize for their shelter, followed by the second and third place dogs for their shelters. Each of the dogs entered were available for immediate adoption.

Gaston is the winner. The Animal Welfare League of Arlington will receive the grand prize of $50,000.  Cowboy wins the second place prize of $25,000 for the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation of Arlington. Coming in third is Buster from the Washington Animal Rescue League. WARL will receive $15,000. In fourth place is Hugo from the Washington Human Society. Each shelter has already received $5,000 from Best in Shelter for being selected to participate.    

Visitors to Best in Shelter were encouraged to watch the videos and read the descriptions for every dog. According to the four participating shelters, the competition was successful not only in making potential owners aware of the merits of shelter pets, but in actually adopting the dogs featured on the site. According to the participating shelters, several of the dogs have been adopted: Pooh Bear and Rumor (Animal Welfare League of Arlington); Pepper (Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation); Max and Bella (Washington Animal Rescue League); Ewok and Hugo (Washington Humane Society.) Cowboy, our second place dog, leads the pack with 20 adoption requests. Overall, more than thirty adoption requests have been received for the dogs on the Best in Shelter site.

Best in Shelter Founder and President Martha Grimes stated, "Congratulations to Gaston and the Animal Welfare League of Arlington.  It's hard to pick a winner when all of the sixteen dogs are so wonderful. We'd like to congratulate all four of the participating shelters and hope they are pleased with the attention and financial resources they received from entering the competition. I'd also like to thank the visitors to the site who generously donated money to the Best in Shelter cause of letting people know that shelter dogs are equal to pure bred dogs in every way when it comes bringing a pet home."

Grimes, a long time animal rights supporter and advocate, established Best in Shelter in 2011 to encourage shelter adoptions.  As the owner of two shelter cats, she is looking forward to the next virtual pet show for cats.

Contact:
Kent Holland
Plesser Holland Assoc.
202-629-3450/ [email protected]

SOURCE Best in Shelter