National nonprofit invests in rescue group to save, improve lives of pets

Windy Ridge Rescue received a $20,000 grant investment from national nonprofit Petco Love in support of its lifesaving work for pets in Sumter.

Petco Love is a national nonprofit leading change for pets by harnessing the power of love to make communities and pet families closer, stronger and healthier. Since its founding in 1999, Petco Love has invested nearly $400 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. And Petco Love helps find loving homes for pets in partnership with Petco and more than 4,000 organizations - like Windy Ridge - across North America, with more than 6.9 million pets adopted and counting.

"Our investment in Windy Ridge Rescue is part of more than $12 million in investments recently announced by Petco Love to power local organizations across the country as part of our commitment to create a future in which no pet is unnecessarily euthanized," said Susanne Kogut, president of Petco Love. "Our local investments are only part of our strategy to empower animal lovers to drive lifesaving change right alongside us. We launched Petco Love Lost, a free national lost and found database that uses patented photo-matching technology to simplify the search for lost pets."

"We are grateful for the support of our community and to be a Petco Love partner. We absolutely could not accomplish as much as we have without this lifesaving investment," said Dana Massie, executive director of Windy Ridge Rescue. "We work tirelessly in Sumter County doing TNV-R and trying to better control the population of community cats. This partnership with Petco Love is crucial, as we could only accomplish a fraction of the spay and neuter surgeries we do each year if we relied solely on donations from volunteers and individual residents of the community."

Windy Ridge Rescue is a nonprofit organization that is alone in Sumter County trying to tackle the overpopulation of community cats through the Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Release (TNV-R) program. Many community colonies have young kittens who can be domesticated easily and are made available for adoption. Since 2017, Windy Ridge Rescue has found homes for almost 2,500 friendly cats, many placed in stable and protected outdoor living areas like barns and warehouses, and TNV-R'd almost 4,000 community cats.

About Windy Ridge Rescue

The group is dedicated to saving animals in our community from being euthanized in shelters, living as strays or ending up in abusive situations. Since 2016, the volunteers of Windy Ridge Rescue have found loving families for hundreds of previously unwanted cats, kittens, dogs and puppies. The group's focus in Sumter is primarily TNV-R of community cats while trying to find homes for the kittens who can be domesticated or those community cats who are friendly and found themselves part of a community colony. We do still help dogs in the community by providing donated dog food and supplies to owners in need and sponsoring medical care when donations are available.

About Petco Love

Petco Love is a nonprofit organization that makes communities and pet families closer, stronger and healthier. Since its founding in 1999 as the Petco Foundation, it has empowered animal welfare organizations by investing nearly $400 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. It has helped find loving homes for more than 6.9 million pets in partnership with Petco and organizations nationwide. The group's love for pets drives it to lead with innovation, creating tools animal lovers need to reunite lost pets, and lead with passion, inspiring and mobilizing communities and more than 4,000 animal welfare partners to drive lifesaving change. Visit PetcoLove.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads and LinkedIn to be part of the lifesaving work.