Last weekend 49 shelters nationwide got the 2013 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge off to a great start with adoption events, extended hours and thousands of animals’ lives saved—more than 2,400 in total!

During kick-off weekend, the shelters demonstrated that they’re working to save more animals than ever before. Here are some highlights from the shelters that broke their own adoption records over the weekend:

• City of Hesperia Animal Control and Services reported that on Saturday, June 1, they experienced more pet adoptions than on any single day in the organization’s history.
• City of Corpus Christi Animal Care Services saw more adoptions in one day than in the past five years for the entire month of June. Wow!
• The Animal Foundation (Las Vegas) adopted out more than twice as many cats during kick-off weekend as it did during the first weekend of June 2012.
 

And we can’t help but share some of the heartwarming photos the competing shelters posted throughout the weekend’s festivities.

Two lucky pups proved that two are better than one when they went home with adopters during Unicoi County Animal Shelter’s Challenge kick-off event.

Carter was one of 157 lucky animals adopted in just 24 hours at Wayside Waifs' adoption event.

We’re thrilled by all of the successes the competing shelters experienced during kick-off weekend, and we can’t wait to follow all the contestants during the rest of the three-month competition. Stay tuned for all the action to come!

The ASPCA works hard to ensure that there are good laws on the books to protect animals across the country. But we can’t do it without the grassroots advocacy of our dedicated ASPCA supporters!

The most powerful way for animal advocates to help reshape our laws is through lobbying their legislators directly. We help you do that by hosting Lobby Days, where we invite passionate citizens like you to be trained by our advocacy experts and make your voices heard at your state Capitol.

So far in 2013, we have been joined by over 2,000 incredible advocates at 29 state Lobby Days. These citizen lobbyists include people from all backgrounds and all levels of advocacy experience, and collectively they made an enormous impact on animal protection, helping to pass bills into law in Maryland (establishing a first-of-its-kind statewide spay/neuter program), Texas (a gas chamber ban), New York (increased penalties for killing a police animal) and New Jersey (a ban on inhumane gestation crates).

And we’re not done yet—our 30^th Lobby Day of the year is in Sacramento, CA, and kicks off in less than two weeks! If you’re a Californian, register to join us!

Be part of history and make real change for our animals—join our ASPCA Advocacy Brigade. Sign up now, and ask your friends and family to join, so you’ll never miss out on the next Lobby Day, grassroots training or opportunity to take action. Together, we are unstoppable!