Dear Friends:

Zootoo is thrilled to announce that we have fulfilled our commitment to the winner of the 2008 Shelter Makeover contest!

Those who know me see and experience my passion for the health and well being of animals every day. We created the Shelter Makeover contest as a way to improve the care and treatment of animals across the country and increase community awareness of their local shelter.

Zootoo remains committed to the Shelter Makeover contest and its promise to deliver up to $1 million in value to contest winners through partnerships and sponsorships, cash contributions, and donations of goods and services.

We at Zootoo root for every one of our contest contestants and believe that great things happen when communities come together such as more animals getting adopted.

Richard
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Joint Statement of Zootoo and Stray Rescue
April 22, 2009

Zootoo and Stray Rescue of St. Louis share the same goal: to do what is best for animals that are in the need of care, shelters and adoption. For these animals, we are pleased to announce that an agreement was reached today that will allow Zootoo and Stray Rescue to move forward. Today’s agreement completes Zootoo’s commitment to Stray Rescue. Zootoo was delighted to assist Stray Rescue in this endeavor.

Stray Rescue Corrects Misunderstandings

Upon learning more about the sponsorship funds that were associated with the Zootoo Shelter Makeover, Stray Rescue realizes that it did not have the full facts at its disposal when two statements were made. The Pedigree Foundation grant associated with the Zootoo Shelter Makeover Program was and remains part of the value delivered by Zootoo. Stray Rescue believed that this $250,000 was not part of the makeover award.
Therefore, the following statements should be corrected. “Stray Rescue founder Randy Grim said Wednesday his group wired Zootoo.com $170,000 of its own money. . . .” appeared in an April 8, 2009 Associated Press story.

The second statement, from an April 12, 2009, USA Today article, “Grim says he has wired Zootoo about $129,000 since November to pay for much of the work so far. . . .”

Once Stray Rescue had all of the facts, it realized that funds mentioned in the statements were part of the value delivered by Zootoo to Stray Rescue. Also, no funds were wired from Stray Rescue to Zootoo. Stray Rescue wired what it now understands to be sponsorship makeover grant funds to a title company in charge of disbursing funds for the makeover.

We are pleased that we have put this matter behind us and have reached an agreement to move forward with our shelter makeover. We regret any hardship this may have caused Zootoo or any of its sponsors or our supporters.