by: Smalls Team 11.29.24

More Than a Pet, More Than a Cat

culture, happenings

2024 marks the second year of our partnership with the Humane Society of the United States. We’re incredibly proud of how we’ve been supporting their More Than a Pet campaign, which raises awareness about the invaluable benefits of animal companionship and addresses the disparities in access to pet care and resources in underserved communities. Here’s a quick rundown of how we’ve helped cats around the country make nine lives into ten:

Making a positive impact

In Philly, we saw ten stray cats for every stray dog. And for every happy, cared-for cat, there are many who aren’t able to access the care they deserve. Thanks to our online checkout module that lets our community give $3, $5, or $7 to the HSUS with every purchase of Smalls, we’ve donated nearly $30K to the More Than a Pet campaign in 2024, funding meals and medical support for cats in underserved areas.

We’ve been lucky enough to receive kind messages from the community like: “Many thanks for my gang. They enjoyed the free food from Smalls. The broth and wet food were a BIG hit. This helps in feeding the community cats I care for,” and “They love the food! Their poop doesn’t stink anymore, and their coats are so shiny!”

It’s not a party until it’s a pawty

At the most recent “Unpacking Pawty” in Philadelphia, hosted by the More Than a Pet campaign, we served 2400 free cat meals (at no cost to cat families!) in one day, distributed cat litter, and debuted our new Smalls freezers, which will live with the Pets for Life Philadelphia and Los Angeles teams — this way, cats in these communities can stay fed with Smalls fresh food.

Meredith Lee/For The HSUS

Behind every happy cat is a hero

No cat hero should go uncelebrated, which is why we helped support the More Than a Pet Community Hero Award. Launched on National Pet Day (April 11th), we honored three people who are lifelines for their local feline friends, each receiving a well-deserved $5,000 cash prize for their work in supporting access to care:

• As if founding her own rescue group wasn’t enough, Julie Cassadore from San Carlos, Arizona, also transports animals for veterinary care, triages emergency cases, and widely distributes pet food donations throughout her community.

• Jamal Hughes from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, does it all, from volunteering at a pet food pantry to advocating for equitable, animal-friendly policies at city council meetings.

• Ingemar Woords from Altus, Oklahoma, dedicates his time to trapping cats for medical care and spay/neuter surgeries while living 50 miles from the closest low-cost clinic, proving to be a resourceful and committed hero for cats.

Cat Daddy rallies cat parents

The HSUS introduced us to @thecatdaddy, who helped raise awareness for the More Than a Pet campaign. We collaborated with Jackson Galaxy, cat daddy and renowned cat behavior/wellness expert, to promote the More Than a Pet Community Hero Award initiative across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. We ended up generating over 400,000 impressions and engaging with enough celebrities to bring the total social media following up to more than 12 million—not that we’re surprised, we’ve always known just how many people love cats.

Our fur-ever friends

We’re always open to learning a new thing or two, especially since our cat friends might just be the most intelligent animals on the planet. So, we joined our friends at the HSUS Pets for Life Mentorship Training in Philadelphia to get in-depth knowledge on how we can help support cat parents and veterinarian communities across the country. We spent the day in Philadelphia learning about the impact of systemic poverty on pet ownership, effective outreach strategies, and long-term program sustainability.

Meredith Lee/For The HSUS

More than a pet

Our cats are more than just cats—they’re family. That’s why we’re honored to be a part of the More Than a Pet campaign, joining the HSUS to raise awareness about pet equity and rally support for those who do not have access to veterinary care and pet essentials. If you’d like to learn more about cat essentials and care, check out more articles at our blog, Small Talk.