South Africa's biggest ever single donation of pet food means that nutritious dinners will soon be on the menu for pets in disadvantaged communities.

Hill's Pet Nutrition announced last week that it is donating over one-million Rand of premium quality pet food to animal welfare organisations. Hill's has partnered with IFAW (International fund for Animal Welfare – www.ifaw.org) to distribute more than 26 tons of food to community linked animal welfare organisations around South Africa and in Zimbabwe.

"This is probably the biggest and most valuable ever donation of pet food to animal welfare," said Christina Pretorius, Communications Manager for IFAW SA. "Hill's generosity will be an enormous help in uplifting the wellbeing of thousands of dogs and cats in underprivileged communities across South Africa."

"There's no doubt that good nutrition is a key component in keeping pets well and healthy," she said.

"We recently made some exciting innovations to our range of premium pet foods, which is now called Hill's Science Plan," said Rina Cronwright, Managing Director of Hill's South Africa.  "Because we wanted our clients to benefit from these improvements immediately, we decided to donate the remaining Hill's Science Diet stock to IFAW for distribution to local community animal welfare organisations."

"We have a long history of supporting animal welfare organisations around the world, because we know we can make a difference," added Cronwright.  "Our mission is 'to help enrich and lengthen the special relationships between people and their pets' and we believe this donation will do just that."

Last week representatives from some of the beneficiary animal welfare groups gathered at Hill's warehouse in Cape T own for the official handover.  Top model Tanit Phoenix was there to share the celebrations.

IFAW said it had identified 12 animal welfare groups working in disadvantaged communities to benefit from the Hill's donation. "We are also arranging for a substantial quantity of food to be sent to Zimbabwe for distribution by the Zimbabwe Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ZNSPCA)," said Christina Pretorius.

The beneficiary organisations are:

Kleinmond Animal Welfare, Western Cape
Mdzananda Animal Clinic in Khayelitsha, Cape Town
Stellenbosch Animal Welfare Society, Western Cape
Sunnydale Animal Health and Sterilisation Association (SASHA), Western Cape
The Emma Animal Rescue Society (TEARS), Fish Hoek Valley, Cape Town
Animal Welfare Society of Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape
Kirkwood Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Eastern Cape
4 Paws in Johannesburg, Gauteng
Community Led Animal Welfare (CLAW) in Johannesburg, Gauteng
Dullstroom Animal Welfare, Mpumalanga
CLAW Bloemfontein, Free State
Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ZNSPCA)

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