If you or your family are contemplating bringing home a cat, dog, bird, tortoise, rabbit, guinea pig, rat, duck, chicken, horse or other pet this holiday season, there’s an orphaned animal waiting impatiently for you at one of the 25 San Diego County shelters and rescue groups participating in this year’s Iams Home 4 The Holidays (H4TH) adoption campaign. Best of all, you can give yourself the gift of unconditional love while saving a life. Who wants to contemplate an orphaned pet waking up behind bars on Thanksgiving or Christmas morning? Or perhaps not waking up at all? Now marking its 11th year, H4TH has ambitious goals for the season: to reach 4,000 participating shelters and rescues, up from last year’s 3,550-plus shelters in 17 countries, and 1.5 million pets placed in loving homes. Last year’s holiday placements exceeded by nearly 203,000 the original goal of 1 million pet adoptions between October and early January. While the now-international holiday program boasts almost 3.3 million adoptions in its first 10 years, the program started small. Helen Woodward Animal Center (HWAC) President Mike Arms and spokesman John Van Zante, both newcomers in 1999, were frustrated at seeing 40,000 pets euthanized annually in San Diego County and 5 million nationwide. They noted that, according to Humane Society of the United States statistics, about 83 percent of pets were reaching families through puppy and kitten mills, backyard breeders and professional breeders, and only 17 percent through shelters and rescues, prompting the high euthanasia rate. “More families invite pets into their homes at the holidays. For a long time, shelters and rescues didn’t do adoptions in December because they felt it was an emotional decision,” Van Zante explains. They decided to change their practice, making sure the holiday adoption is an informed commitment. If parents had promised their children a puppy or kitten for Christmas and couldn’t adopt from a shelter or rescue, they would buy one at a mall pet store or parking lot from a vendor hawking appealing babies. What it comes down to, Van Zante says, is do you want to support puppy mills raising sick animals in squalid conditions or do you want to save an orphaned pet’s life? “If you’re buying from a pet shop, then the pet came from a puppy or kitten mill. A reputable breeder doesn’t load up a van with six- or seven-week-old puppies or kittens and drop them off at the mall,” he says.  Many are trucked in from the two biggest puppy mill states, Missouri and Arkansas, and in San Diego, from Kern County and Mexico. Many puppy and kitten mill pets wind up critically ill or dying within days of purchase. Sheltering organizations and mall shops approach placement differently. “We’re looking to make a match. They’re looking to make a profit,” Van Zante says.  The first year, 1999, H4TH’s goals were modest: increase adoptions, lower the euthanasia rate and deprive pet shops and their puppy mill suppliers of their holiday bonanza. The 14 participating San Diego shelters were delighted to find homes for 2,563 orphans. All departed with food gift packs from Iams, which became the program’s biggest booster and named sponsor. By the third year, with the program operating nationally under HWAC’s guidance, they were seeing remarkable results. “We had one shelter call and say ‘what do we do? We ran out of pets!’” Van Zante says. They advised transfering pets between shelters to meet demand. A woman called in tears from a Texas shelter to report their adoption figures. When pressed, she said her shelter normally has to euthanize dogs and cats every day. But because of H4TH, they hadn’t had to euthanize a pet in two weeks. Since 2001, celebrity spokesperson Diane Keaton, a HWAC board member, and animal-loving “ambassadors” including actresses Felicity Huffman and Kristin Bell have boosted their publicity successes. This year’s H4TH ambassador is Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank, who volunteered in animal shelters as a teen and now is mom to two rescue dogs: Karoo, whom she saved from the streets of South Africa, and Rumi, whom she adopted from a Los Angeles shelter participating in H4TH. Susan Reeves, volunteer executive director of Westie Rescue of California, which serves eight Western states and has 500 to 600 volunteers, has participated in H4TH since its inception and is delighted with the results. This year, because of the economy, foreclosures and evictions, her rescue is over-capacity with 29 West Highland terriers in their rescue and rehab program and eight more owner surrenders awaiting foster homes. She has at least six Westies, including some rescued from a desert puppy mill, available for adoption through H4TH and expects to place all available dogs. Friends of Cats, based in El Cajon, has about 100 to 120 adoptable cats available. San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society has participated for about four years and found it helpful in re-homing some of the 600 to 700 animals they rescue annually. They adopt out only to approved homes, including many red-eared sliders to people with outdoor ponds. “Turtles and tortoises make great adoptable pets for kids with allergies who can’t have dogs or cats,” explains Ginny Teigen, Society president. For more information about Iams Home 4 The Holidays as well as participating shelters, visit Helen Woodward Animal Center’s special Website, www.animalcenter.org/events/h4th, or call (858) 756-4117.