Cats and Coupons

Literally. I thought this article from nj.com was very cool and I wanted to Share Some Good Stuff.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard of the MilkBone company. They make doggie treats. What I didn’t know is what a very charitable, generous company they are. In 1997 MilkBone started a program called Canine Heroes, which is a nationwide program that provides assistance dogs to people with physical disabilities and provides dogs trained to detect bombs and drugs to law enforcement agencies. In celebration of MilkBones 100th anniversary, this month the company has donated another million dollars to the Canine Heroes program. Canine Heroes is an expensive program to run, so that money will be put to good use.

Canine Assistants are dogs are placed with people with disabilities and/or other special needs. The program has for types of dogs - service, companion, hearing and seizure response. People that receive an assistance dog also receive free pet food and veterinary care for life. It is estimated that the cost to train one dog is over $12,000 and the training can take more than a year. The article included brief interviews with two New Jersey families who have been fortunate enough to receive Canine Assistants.

MilkBone’s Police Dog program helps place police dogs into communities with little or no cost to the community receiving the dog. In eleven years the Police dog program has sponsored more than 450 police dogs across the country, for a nationwide benefit that’s worth more then $2 million. MilkBone also donated $5,000 to a local NJ Sheriff’s department Canine Assistance program, as well as partnering with Petsmart in donating a Dalmation to the department.

This article touched me on a number of different levels. I liked it enough that I spent some time on the Milkbone Heroes site reading about the programs. The article is a fabulous story about a program that touches many lives. The program is quite interesting, and needed. This is a great human interest story but it also hit home for me on a personal level, as I have a son with special needs. I really enjoyed watching the video on the Canine Assistants site. To watch it just click the words Our Inspiration.  What you see is truly inspiring and heart warming. It’s good stuff.