Nutro® Natural Choice®
The Nutro Company – Fueling America’s Search Dogs for 14 Years
Wherever disasters strike, the Search Dog Foundation is there, offering professionally trained dogs to help firefighters and other first responders find people buried alive in the wreckage of disasters. Since 1998, The Nutro Company has supported SDF with NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® dog food for all SDF Canine Disaster Search Teams. To further support this heroic Foundation, The Nutro Company has entered into a $1,000,000 dollar contract with SearchDogsUSA, the official licensing and marketing arm of the Search Dog Foundation. The Nutro Company is providing $1,000,000 to the Search Dog Foundation over a five-year period as part of an exclusive partnership agreement between Nutro and SearchDogsUSA.
As SDF’s exclusive dog food partner, The Nutro Company provides ongoing support to the Search Dogs by giving them NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® dog food at home and during deployments. This is the fuel they need to keep up their endurance and health in the face of disasters. The Nutro Company provides additional vouchers to SDF for distribution to all of America’s FEMA-Certified Search Teams.
In addition to providing a healthy diet to all the Search Dogs, The Nutro Company has selected a Gift Naming at SDF’s future National Training Center. The Nutro Company “ROOM TO RUN”™ area will be a small dog park where Search Dogs in training will have a special space to run and play.
Kent Cunningham, Vice President of Marketing for The Nutro Company:
“Sponsoring the National Disaster SearchDog Foundation is a natural fit for The Nutro Company. We wanted to ensure these heroic dogs are receiving nutritious natural pet food, and have access to a robust play area to help them maintain a healthy lifestyle.”
Debra Tosch, SDF Executive Director:
“The Nutro Company has been a strong and committed supporter of the Search Dog Foundation for over 14 years. We look forward to partnering with them over the next five years to ensure our dogs and their handlers are in the best shape possible when disasters strike, and that the National Training Center gives them the best possible training experience.”
Wilma Melville, SDF Founder:
“We are so grateful to The Nutro Company for their support and their belief in our mission of service. Our dogs are helping save lives in challenging disasters, and the assistance we get from The Nutro Company, including the excellent food they provide, helps the dogs stay healthy and fit.”
Endorsements by SDF Handlers
Jeff Leon – Tulsa Fire Department:
“As a high energy dog, Justice burns calories quickly. NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® Dog Food gives him the endurance he needs to search for hours, as he would on a deployment. As a firefighter, I know the importance of being ready for anything and having the right resources when needed. Nutro’s generous voucher program gives me peace of mind knowing that Justice is in top shape if we get called to respond to a disaster.”
Debra Tosch, retired handler L.A. Task Force 2, and SDF Executive Director:
“SDF stands by NATURAL CHOICE® as it provides premium [natural] nutrition and helps our canines sustain the performance level needed during training and deployments. I fed my canine partner, Abby, NATURAL CHOICE® dog food since she was a puppy—it was the only dog food I ever used. With the demands of Search Dog training, I trusted it to provide her with the premium nutrition she needed to maintain maximum performance.”
About The Nutro Company
The Nutro Company, a division of Mars, Incorporated, is a leading manufacturer of natural pet food products sold exclusively at pet specialty stores. The company has been making "The World's Best Pet Food" for more than 80 years and is dedicated to quality, excellence and innovation in dog and cat nutrition offering healthful formulas for every pet's life stage, activity level and size. The Nutro Company's family of brands includes NUTRO® MAX®, NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® and NUTRO® ULTRA™ pet food brands in addition to the GREENIES® brands which include the U.S. leader in pet specialty dental chews, GREENIES® PILL POCKETS® treats and GREENIES® JointCare treats. For more information, please visit www.nutro.com and www.greenies.com.
Relevant Links
Natural Choice Dog section – Potential copy point: Learn more about the food that fuels America’s Search Dogs! We will update this area to callout the SDF partnership.
http://www.nutro.com/natural-dog-food/natural-choice-dog-food/food-high-energy.aspx
Jester is the official “NUTRO NATURAL CHOICE®” Search Dog! Read about him here >
SEARCH TEAM DEPLOYMENTS – NUTRO’S STEADFAST SUPPORT
JAPAN – MARCH 2011
The Nutro Company provides financial assistance and in-kind donations to the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF)—both of which are supporting the efforts of the six Canine Disaster Search Teams who were deployed to Japan this week to assist with search and rescue efforts.
The Nutro Company makes an annual donation to the SDF that goes toward training the Search Dog/Handler teams and providing important live-saving equipment, such as radios that allow for communication between teams. In addition to its monetary contributions, the company’s NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® brand serves as the exclusive dog food sponsor of the SDF. The Canine Disaster Search Teams (led by SDF-trained dogs Baxter, Cadillac, Pearl, Hunter, Joe and Riley) in Japan will be fueled by NATURAL CHOICE® dog food.
“These dogs and their teams have worked tirelessly to save lives in the midst of this disaster,” stated David Ansell, President of The Nutro Company. “We are honored to be able to support their mission in this way.”
“We are grateful to The Nutro Company and NATURAL CHOICE® for their continued support of the Search Dog Foundation,” stated David Kaplan, President of SearchDogsUSA. “Our dogs are performing miracles in extremely difficult circumstances, and the assistance we get from The Nutro Company – including the actual food we feed our dogs on the ground – helps them do that.”
The Nutro Company provides free NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® dog food vouchers to every Certified Canine Search Team in America. Since 2008, NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® has been the exclusive dog food sponsor of SDF, donating over $600,000 in monetary and in-kind contributions to the organization. Search Dogs eat a regular diet of this premium dog food, helping keep them strong and fit for their life-saving work.
Seven SDF canines were instrumental in finding 12 people buried in the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating earthquake. Each of these dogs was fueled by NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® dog food. In response to their heroic efforts, The Nutro Company made an initial donation of $50,000 in support of the teams, and pledged to match The Nutro Company associate contributions 100%.
HAITI – JANUARY 2010
As search and rescue teams return home from Haiti this week, The Nutro Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated, today announced a $50,000 donation to the Search Dog Foundation (SDF). SDF is a California-based organization that deployed six canine disaster search teams to assist in the search and rescue operations in Haiti. SDF’s search team efforts have been the most successful deployment in the organization’s 14-year history with a total of 12 individuals discovered and pulled out alive from the debris.
“We have all seen the tragic images from Haiti, interspersed with moments of hope when survivors were pulled from the wreckage,” stated David Ansell, President of The Nutro Company. “For over ten years, we have supported the Search Dog Foundation and have watched their teams work tirelessly to save the lives of people in the midst of a disaster. We are honored to be able to support their mission.”
Today’s donation builds on the exclusive three-year partnership between the SDF and NUTRO® NATURALCHOICE® dog food. The NATURAL CHOICE® brand is the official dog food sponsor of the SDF, and since 2008 The Nutro Company has made significant monetary and in-kind donations to the organization. The relationship stretches back to 1998, when The Nutro Company began providing vouchers for NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® dog food.
“We are grateful to The Nutro Company and the NATURAL CHOICE® brand for their continued support of the Search Dog Foundation,” stated David Kaplan, President of SearchDogsUSA. “Our dogs perform miracles in extremely difficult circumstances, and the assistance we get from The Nutro Company – including the actual food we feed our dogs on the ground – helps them do that.”
SDF is a non-profit based in Ojai, CA that produces canine disaster search teams trained to find victims buried alive after events such as the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina and now the earthquake in Haiti. The teams who participate in the relief efforts are instrumental in rescuing numerous individuals from the rubble of collapsed structures. Anyone interested in contributing to the Search Dog Foundation can do so here.
In total, the various business segments of Mars, Incorporated have donated $475,000 to the disaster relief and recovery efforts in Haiti, in both monetary and in-kind contributions. In addition, The Nutro Company will be matching associate donations to SDF 100 percent.
“We are deeply grateful to Mars Caribbean and Mars Central America for being Part of the Search by providing this tremendous gift in support of our teams. We do not take their support lightly. Knowing that disasters can happen anywhere, anytime, their donation means a great deal to the teams, and to everyone at the Search Dog Foundation.”
— SDF Board Chairman Chris Wright