BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The Northwest Arkansas nonprofit Best Friends Animal Society and company Baby Doge have officially broken the Guinness World Record for the most pet food donated in 24 hours.
The two broke the record on the morning of Saturday, May 20. Baby Doge hosted a ceremony with an official Guinness World Record representative.
The last record holder over a decade ago was Mars Petcare in the United Kingdom with 9,253 pounds and 14 ounces. Best Friends and Baby Doge surpassed them with 81,021 pounds and 11 ounces.
Kristin Switzer with Best Friends Animal Society said this has been planned for a few months.
"One of our founding partners of the pet resource center, Baby Doge, reached out to us a few months ago and said 'Hey, let's try to break a world record,'" said Switzer.
The process started on Friday, May 19, as J.B. Hunt organized and stored the donated food from Best Friends' partners.
Adjudicator for Guinness World Record, Mike Marcotte, said they had to calculate things a bit differently.
"Because Guinness World Record is a London-based company, we had to weigh all that food in kilograms," laughed Marcotte. "Then we had to transfer it all over into pounds."
This event was a great help to many local shelters, Best Friends said, along with the fact over 30 shelters from around the state received donations. The public was invited to receive food as well.
"We were down to about three bags of dog food, this came at a perfect time for us and I mean we couldn't be more thankful for the community and Best Friends for helping us out. We have 57 dogs right now and this has been beneficial," said Nancy Cullin with the Bella Vista Animal Shelter.
While Best Friends has now broken a record, their work to save all pets continues.
"As long as we have foster homes, we're able to pull animals into foster homes from shelters. We do all the medical care, we provide all of the food that the foster homes may need, they just provide a warm couch and all the love," said Switzer.
To donate, volunteer, or foster and adopt your own furry friend, click here.
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