To: Mr. Michael J Massey and the PetSmart Board of Directors.

PetSmart, please reevaluate your emergency guidelines.

Recently Poodle and Pooch Rescue in Orlando took on the enormous task of rescuing 74 abandoned and stray dogs out of the Redlands area in Miami, FL. The Redlands area is a notorious dumping ground for unwanted animals. Many suffer a horrible death as a result. Together, with many dedicated volunteers, Poodle and Pooch was able to save the lives of these 74 dogs. All of these dogs required veterinary care as well as the “normal” things like fosters, food and crates. The undertaking was huge. Their action even drew media attention and was carried on several local television stations.

Poodle and Pooch has an amazing reputation for providing the animals they save with extraordinary care as they again have done with this monumental action.

Poodle and Pooch has reached out to you because not only do they do a vast amount of their business with you and spend many thousands of dollars every year in your stores, but also because they believe you share their compassion for animals.

Alone the vetting costs for these animals is huge, but as everyone who has worked with them knows, they spare no costs. Some had serious injuries from being hit by cars, others had bullets in their bodies. Some had legs so severely injured that they had to have those limbs amputated. Many had severe injuries that they suffered from animal attacks and, even worse, human attacks. Clearly, the action in saving 74 dogs in a single day, then providing the follow up care, in all its aspects, is enormous and does demonstrate a grave emergency.

Poodle and Pooch reached out to PetSmart Charities with hopes of getting some form of emergency help from your organization. The request was denied with the answer “Based on our guidelines we do not consider this an emergency situation therefore we cannot help you with these dogs.”

Clearly, this is an emergency situation as well as a huge act of compassion to those animals. Therefore, we the undersigned, respectfully request that you examine your emergency guidelines to: 1. Determine if there may still be a way to help Poodles and Pooch; 2. To possibly be more reactive to others in the future who jump into action to save so many animals in dire need of attention.

Thank you.