Letter From Joey Herrick

12628603_1745652405666635_6605961978388752306_oHi, my name is Joey Herrick and formerly I was the President and co-founder of Natural Balance Pet Foods. After piloting Natural Balance for 25 years and growing it into a highly respected company I decided I had to make a change. For years as President of Natural Balance Pet Foods, I donated millions of pounds of pet food to the Animal Rescue groups. Why? Because it’s my belief that it is the animal rescue people who go into the shelters and take animals off of death row and put them into foster homes are the real true heroes. They’re the ones who have lowered the euthanasia rates in America’s shelters. But there are not enough animal rescue people to go around and there are just too many animals. I’ve been at shelters where they adopt out 70-80 dogs and cats in a week’s time but take in 140 in that same week. Do the math. It doesn’t pencil out to a good result for animals.

Today, over 80,000 dogs and cats are euthanized EVERY WEEK in U.S. shelters.

This has to stop. Which is why I started The Lucy Pet Foundation. I put a million dollars of my own money to get it up and running and it is something I will never take a salary from.  The plan is to offer no-cost or low-cost mobile spay and neuter clinics. Spay and neuter is essential to cutting down on the number of unwanted animals being born.  But that alone is not going to stop the problem.  A multi-targeted campaign is needed, which includes::

  • Making the American public fully aware of the problem
  • Education about pets to the kids
  • Education to their parents about the health benefits of spay and neuter
  • Grooming and training of the adoptable animals in the shelters
  • Legislation on relevant pet issues

It was easy as President of a pet food company to give animal rescue shelters food. I felt good about myself knowing that I was helping. That had to be done, but boy was that living with blinders on. Driving the spay and neuter mobile bus home from shelter events, I would think to myself, “how can I do this”? The horrible things I would see that people have done to animals, the great pets that just want to give love who are taken to the back and euthanized. But then I get home and all of my animals come running up to see me and I look in their faces. Then I know…. I can never stop the course I’m on.

Please check out The Lucy Pet Foundation. If you like what you see and are in a position to donate, it will help The Lucy Pet Foundation achieve the goal.

Sincerely,

signature_JH

 

 

Joey Herrick

President

The Lucy Pet Foundation