On the occasion of World Animal Day brands Pedigree® and Whiskas® support the Swiss Animal Protection

38 dogs and cats per day become homeless in Switzerland,  making for total of 13'773 animals a year.

Time to act and do something about it! For this year's World's Animal Day Mars Schweiz is supporting the «Adopt a pet» campaign through its Pedigree® and Whiskas® brands. The Ambassadors for this campaign are animal lovers Kerstin Cook and Sara Bachmann.

As October 4th marks the occasion of World Animal Day, it is really time to give a homeless animal a lovely home. However, for older or sick dogs and cats adoption can be difficult.

The Pedigree® and Whiskas® brands are therefore supporting this campaign in conjunction with the Swiss Animal Protection SAP  and Coop: during calendar week 40 and 41, 10 Cents will be donated  for every product sold.  50% of the revenues will go to  www.adopt-a-pet.ch and the other 50% to dogs and cats difficult- to-place currently in the animal shelters of the SAP sections.

Sara Bachmann and Kerstin Cook with their dogs

You can help this campaign not only with the purchase of Pedigree® and Whiskas® products, but also with the donation of cat and dog food. As a kick-off for World Animal Day from  October, 4th onward  Coop Bau + Hobbys will place  food donation boxes to collect food for the dogs and cats in the animal shelters. The boxes will stay even after the World Animal Day campaign ends, so you can contribute year-round!

In Switzerland, according to the ANIS dog database there are 540,000 dogs currently living in 12% of households -  and every second animal comes from abroad. According to the SAP an average of 442 Dogs cross the Swiss borders every week. Of the 25,000 dogs born in Switzerland only 2'000 come from animal shelters.

The illegal puppy trade is becoming a problem. Many people are buying nowadays "cheap puppies" from abroad with the click of a mouse on the Internet - this is faster and is often  cheaper than adopting a dog from the shelter.

However these puppies are often bred under poor conditions and confined in small, polluted wire cages. Many mothers never see sunlight. The puppies are often separated too early from their mothers, badly socialized and become sickly. Many puppies die during transport or shortly thereafter.

For all these reasons it is important that we do our best to adopt and not buy a pet, as thousands of cats and dogs are waiting to find a home!

 World Animal Day is an international initiative aimed at drawing attention to the suffering of the animals caused by people. Since 1925 it has been held every year on the saint's day of Francis of Assisi as he was known to be a passionate animal lover.

Kerstin Cook

Sara Bachmann

Ex-Miss Switzerland Kerstin Cook and presenter Sara Bachmann set themselves up as ambassadors of

Pedigree® and Whiskas® for the campaign. "Why get a puppy from abroad? The Swiss animal shelters

are full, "says Cook. The model has been working for the SAP for years.

Sara Bachmann also has a heart for animals. Her Parson Russell Aria is always with her. That

so many animals end up in the shelters, makes her angry: "Many animals end up in the shelter, because humans did not think enough before buying, "says Bachmann.

My dog Jasper making it clear how much he loves his Dentastix!