Shelter animals win big at Oscars

First there was the report that Oscar host and well-known animal lover Ellen DeGeneres’s pet food company, Halo Purely for Pets, had supplied 20 Oscar swag bags with vouchers for 10,000 meals to be donated to the rescue or shelter of the recipient’s choice.  Then there was that selfie that crashed the Twitter-verse.  In response, Samsung, whose Galaxy Note 3 was used to take the famous picture, has donated $3 million to charities of DeGeneres’s choice in honor of the 3 million retweets (and counting) the picture received.  

The talk-show host chose two beneficiaries:  St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and The Humane Society of the United States.  After receiving word that The HSUS’s coffers just swelled by $1.5 million, CEO Wayne Pacelle said, “Ellen DeGeneres is the leading celebrity voice for animal protection in our nation, and we are so lucky to have her on our side.”  The HSUS will divvy the donation between three programs, Pets for Life, the Shelter Pet Project, and its Animal Rescue Team.