SPOKANE, Wash — Petco showed the love for pets at Spokanimal on Tuesday with a check for $25,000. The money came from Petco’s Love Stories campaign.
Eighteen submissions were selected to receive prizes. Spokanimal received the check during a ceremony at the South Hill Petco store.
This year’s winning submission came from KREM 2’s Tim Pham and it details the impact his dog, Freedom, has had on his life. Pham adopted Freedom in August 2022 after he covered SpokAnimal’s intake of 16 of the 4,000 Beagles rescued from the Envigo breeding facility in Virginia.
Before the announcement, SpokAnimal Executive Director, Dori Peck stated, “While we know winners receive varying grant amounts, the grand prize is $100,000. So, this is a bit like buying a lottery ticket: we know your odds of winning big are slim, but we can’t help but dream of what we might do with the money! Honestly, we’ll be thrilled with any amount. This is actually the third year in a row we’ve had a local Love Stories winner, and we are cautiously optimistic we’ve won more than we’ve done previously. We’ve learned that Petco Love’s field program manager, John Sierra, is flying in for the check presentation and that representation is something new.”
The winning essay explained how a dog with the earmark tattoo of “CNC CEL” has become Pham's beloved companion, helped him make community connections, aided him through some trying times in his life, and helped him grow as a person.
The money means the local shelter can continue to care for thousands of animals each year.
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