DENVER (KDVR) — With rising inflation, budgets for most families are stretched pretty thin and this impacts the entire family, including pets.
According to the Foothills Animal Shelter, 5 percent of pet surrenders at their shelter are due to financial reasons. Families are forced to give up their pets because they can’t afford the cost of equipment, food or supplies.
With prices increasing across the board, it could be hard for people to feed their animals and possibly lead to an increase in pet surrenders.
Canidae, a dog food brand, said its goal is to save families money on pet food by creating refillable dog food stations.
They said you can save up to 40 percent on a 4-pound bag of food using one of their refillable kibble stations over buying traditional dog food.
If that doesn’t make a dent in the costs of food, Colorado Pet Pantry gives free pet food to families who need an extra hand multiple times a week.
“We want to help people to be able to feed their animals so they can pay their rent, pay their utilities, put food on the table. You can’t buy pet food with food stamps, and that’s something a lot of people don’t realize. So it happens, sometimes it’s just a month it’s a bad month, sometimes it’s a bad year,” said Eileen Lambert with Colorado Pet Pantry.
Canidae launched a new program where every pound of kibble sold at a kibble refill station during the launch month, Canidae will match it “pound for pound” to feed local pups.
This month, they’re slated to donate 30,000 pounds of kibble nationwide, 3,000 of that will benefit Colorado organizations, the Animal Rescue of the Rockies, and Colorado Pet Pantry. That amount of food will be able to serve 7,500 meals to pups in just September.
“Because of COVID, we at Colorado Pet Pantry, and I’m sure the animal rescues as well, we’re facing actually a reduction of pet food being donated to us. The pet food that we give out at our food banks is all donated. The brands that donate to us, they created less food during COVID which means they have less surplus to donate to us,” said Lambert.
These refill stations are in 14 Petco locations in the metro area. It’s also environmentally friendly because you’re reducing the amount of plastic dog food bags. It’s estimated that 40,000 dog food bags will be diverted from landfills.
If you have the means to help, Colorado Pet Pantry is hosting a fundraiser called Raise the Woof. Tap here to learn more.