The Cat’s Meow Interviews Hilary Swank
This week, I interviewed Hilary Swank, the ambassador for the Iams Home 4 the Holidays adoption program. The program has placed more than 3 million animals in homes since 1999, and in 2008, the adoption drive found homes for 1,202,718 pets. The 2009 campaign launched on October 1st, and with 3,500 animal organizations, their goal is to help 1.5 million pets find homes this holiday season.
Hilary is an outspoken animal lover who is no stranger to rescuing animals in need. She has adopted many pets throughout her life, including her two dogs Karoo and Rumi. Five years ago, while filming Red Dust in the South African countryside of Karoo, Hilary befriended a starving, tick-infested stray dog she found on the side of a road and adopted him. She adopted Rumi last fall from a participating IH4TH shelter in Los Angeles. I had a few minutes to talk to Hilary about her work with Iams’ Home for the Holidays Program.
Karen: For someone as busy as you, in the midst of promoting a new movie that premieres this week, it seems it would have been easier to write a check than to become the ambassador for the Iams Home 4 the Holidays campaign. What inspired you to get so deeply involved with this program?
Hilary: Well, I’ve always loved animals and I want to do as much as I can to help them. Over 8 million pets are currently homeless in the United States; it’s just terrible. My own animals are a great source of friendship, inspiration and comfort to me, and I know others would feel the same if they had pets.
Because the holiday season is the most popular time of the year for people to buy pets as gifts, it makes sense to try to save the lives of shelter pets by encouraging people to adopt a shelter pet rather than buy from a puppy mill or backyard breeder. Many people are unaware that there are a lot of purebreds available at shelters; for example, as many as 25% of shelter dogs are purebreds. Purebred or not, shelter pets that are placed in loving homes get a second chance at life, and I want to help make that happen.
Karen: Last year, Iams Home 4 the Holidays placed 1 million pets in homes, and this year’s goal is to find homes for 1.5 million pets. Given the current economic climate, that’s a huge increase. Do you think you have a shot at reaching that goal?
Hilary: Absolutely. Pets provide a lot of comfort and solace during tough times, and I think now, more than ever, people should have pets in their lives. Everyone is under a lot of stress for a lot of different reasons, and nothing’s better than a purring kitten or faithful dog to give you comfort and solace when times are tough. Having someone welcome you home with unconditional love after a stressful day — there’s nothing better than that. They love you no matter what.”
Adoption Fast Facts
- As many as 8 million animals are homeless in the U.S.
- Nearly 4 million orphaned dogs and cats will be euthanized this year due to shelter over-crowding and lack of awareness about the importance of pet adoption.
- More than 25 percent of all dogs in shelters are purebreds.
- IH4TH helped 1,202,751 pets find homes last year alone.
- Over the past decade more than 3 million pets –1,638,515 dogs, 1,505,690 cats and 134,062 “other” animals – have been adopted through IH4TH.
How You Can Help
To learn more about how to make a difference in the life of an orphaned pet, including finding participating shelters, volunteering and making a donation to support animal organizations and pets awaiting new homes, visit iamshome4theholidays.com.
About Iams Home 4 the Holidays (IH4TH)
As one of the most successful pet adoption programs in the world, IH4TH partners thousands of animal organizations dedicated to finding forever homes for orphaned pets. Founded by Helen Woodward Animal Center and supported by Iams, IH4TH began in 1999 with just 14 participating animal shelters in San Diego County. Since it began 11 years ago, IH4TH – along with nearly 3,500 pet adoption centers – has helped more than 3,278,143 families experience the joy of pet adoption, including 1.2 million pet adoptions this past year alone. For more information, please visit www.iamshome4theholidays.com or follow us at www.twitter.com/IH4TH.
Yer lady inturviewed Hilary Swank!!!! OMC! We didn’t know she did such grate things fur animuls! Yay fur the Swankie Miss Hilary!
Hey, skeezix… Did yoo get Karoo and Rumi’s pawdographs!?!
Wow! We didn’t realise what great work Hilary Swank does for animals. We’ll make sure that Mum goes to see her next movie when it opens down here.
Purrs
Gypsy & Tasha
Mom has always admired the work of this gifted actress. It’s always nice to find that the goodness of the person matches the talent. Thank you, Hilary, for using your celebrity to help animals.
Hi Skeezy, What a wonderful interview with a nice and caring lady star who truly adores animals. Wish there were more just like her! Your pal always, Bosco.
Bravo!! We need more people like Hilary.
I think Hilary Swank is pretty on the inside as well as the outside.
I agree with Daisy…pretty, smart, articulate, AND a compassionate pet lover, just like the Food Lady! Doesn’t get much better than that…Hope the program is a huge success this year!
As a big fan of Ms. Swank, I applaud her advocacy efforts and her caring — just wish she’d adopt cats instead of dogs, though.
Loved the interview as I have always been a Hillary fan. Best of luck on the adoption campaign. I have a campaign of my own and that is adopting the older animals as so many of these pets become homeless through no fault of their own or circumstances beyond their control. They are most greatful and adjust beautifully.
Loved the interview as I have always been a Hillary fan. Best of luck on the adoption campaign. I have a campaign of my own and that is adopting the older animals as so many of these pets become homeless through no fault of their own or circumstances beyond their control. They are most greatful and adjust beautifully.
Good questions! Duz this meen I’m now two degreez of seperashun from Hillery Swank?
Good interview. Hope you gave her my number, ’cause I think she’s hot.
xox
tailer
I ALWAYS WUVED HILARY SWANKIE! I THINK SHE’S SOOO APAWABLE!
…SHE IS A GRRRRREAT ACTRESS TOO!..
MEOWWW! NOW THAT I KNOW HOW MUCH SHE WUVS CATS AND ALL ANIMALS I WANT TO GIVE HER WOTS AND WOTS OF LICKS AND KISSES!
TANKYOU SO MUCH HILLARY FUR WUVING US FURRY CRITTERS!
WE WUV YA RIGHT BACKKK!
MEOWWWWWW
HAPPY HALLMEOWEEN HILLARY!
It’s a shame she hooked up with Iams. They still haven’t gotten their act together when it comes to animal testing, torture and death and have decided to launch a positive ad campaign instead.
Why not be the spokesperson for a non- or not-for-profit and actually do some “good” for animals and not a corporate company’s tarnished image?
Our family will continue to boycott Iams until they actually care about animals and end the torture of them at their facilities.
Shame on Hillary Swank and shame on Catster/Dogster for promoting this charade.
All paws down.
PING I am not sure where you get your information, or how current it is, but I have toured Iams research facilities, and have witnessed first-hand how happy and healthy the research subjects are. They are not tortured, they are not mistreated. In fact, in many ways, they get more love and attention than my own cats get — which is a lot. Dogs and cats are incapable of faking happiness — and I witnessed scores of very happy, very healthy animals.
I’ve read nearly every inspection report of their research facility for the last several years, conducted by an independent company. There were no reports of anything even coming close to suggesting mistreatment, torture or abuse.
And I can’t imagine someone condemning a program that will attempt to find homes for 1.5 million abandoned animals.
Many would like to put a halt to animal research altogether. In the case of animal food, it’s the only way to determine how well the food is metabolized and how to improve the formulations. Without testing, they would essentially be testing on the feline or canine populace as a whole.
The cats are cage free in stimulus rich environments. The testing consists of putting a portion of food down (or two, if they’re testing preference), then measuring how much they eaten, and collecting what comes out the other end and analyzing it. The animals are not harmed in any way. The cats are outgoing and eager to greet visitors.
In the past, Iams has had issues with the treatment of test animals. They have terminated all off-site testing at academic labs, and the only testing that is not conducted in their research facility is conducted in-home with service animals.
No, I didn’t drink the Iams kool-aide. If I had witnessed anything that made me even the least bit queasy (and it doesn’t take much), I would have been quick to condemn Iams for it.
Those I met who work for Iams are all rabid animal lovers. These are not people who would happily work for a company that practices animal torture. And despite the long hours they work, they do love their jobs.
I’m not Mike Wallace, and I didn’t employ inside moles to shoot secret footage. But from what we observed from a day at the facility, both Dr Barchus and I came away amazed at the quality of the facility, the care that the animals receive, and more importantly, the hands-on one-on-one love that each animal gets every single day. After 6 years, these animals are adopted out to loving families, many of whom are Iams employees — including the CEO.
I applaud Iams for rectifying its past offenses, and setting a new standard of laboratory care. By continuing to condemn IAMS, you give little incentive to other companies to change their policies — they might figure they will be condemned forever anyway, so why go to the expense?