12-year-old’s idea gives free food to shelters

Mimi Ausland, 12, of Bend, Ore., was looking for a way to help the animals at her local animal shelter.

She’d been volunteering there since she was 7 years old and knew how great the need was. Then she saw a site her dad, Kelly Ausland, was going to each day. He’d click on it and people half a world away would get a little rice. A light bulb went off.

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Kelly Ausland

This is Mimi Ausland, a 12 year old who launched freekibble.com, a website where people can click on once a day to donate free dog and cat food. A local shelter in Forsyth County is now getting 2,000 pounds of pet food a month from the Oregon-based site. Here, Mimi sits atop one of the first deliverys of food to her local shelter in central Oregon.

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“I went to a local pet store and asked them if they’d donate the food if people went online and clicked to donate it, and they agreed,” Mimi said.

The site, www.freekibble.com, launched April 1, with the store donating 10 pieces of kibble every time someone went to the site and answered the daily trivia question (a donation is made whether you get the question right or not.) The Humane Society of Central Oregon started getting hundreds of pounds of food. But Mimi’s idea was destined for larger things.

Within two months, information about the site had gone national, and the pet store couldn’t keep up with the demand for donations. The Auslands started looking for national companies to help.

In stepped Castor & Pollux Pet Works, a company that manufactures natural and organic pet foods, as well as zootoo.com, a pet Web site launched by the former owner of Meow Mix. Suddenly the little site Mimi started to help one shelter was able to help others. She’s now donating food to nine shelters or groups in Florida, Portland, Chicago and New York state, as well as one in Forsyth County.

“We didn’t apply at first because they’re on the West Coast, but then we heard they were looking for other shelters to help,” said Tim Link, president of the Humane Society of Forsyth County.

For the past three months, his shelter has received 1,500 pounds of dog food and 500 pounds of cat food from the site in the form of Castor & Pollux coupons.

“It doesn’t cover everything we need, but it’s certainly a big help,” said Link, whose group feeds the animals in the shelter, operates a pet food bank and feeds more than 400 feral cats.

A sister site, freekibblekat.com, launched June 1, and today 35,000 people a day are clicking on them, feeding 1,200 dogs and cats daily. Kelly Ausland said donations have gone from 600 pounds in June to 16,000 pounds in September after Mimi made appearances on NBC news and the “Today” show.

“It’s also creating an awareness and getting people to be more involved with their local shelters,” Kelly Ausland said.

Richard Thompson, founder of zootoo.com, said he’s proud of what a sixth-grader has been able to do. As an insider in the pet food industry, he coordinates the food contributions for Mimi and said he plans to continue to do it no matter how popular the site gets.

“Right now it’s about half a tractor-trailer load a month,” Thompson said. “If it gets to be eight, nine or 10 truckloads, then we might have to build a bloody facility, but we’ll continue to support her.”

This CFA championship and household pet cat show will have eight rings where cats are being judged, as well as vendors, agility demonstrations and a kitty costume contest. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 2 at the Gwinnett County Civic Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. $7 adults, $5 children 12 and under. More information: www.cottonstatescatclub.org.

A dinner and silent auction at the Flat Creek Country Club on Saturday will benefit the Fayette County Humane Society. Tickets are $50 or $90 a couple and must be purchased in advance at www.fayettehumane.org or 770-487-1073. 6:30-9 p.m. at 100 Flat Creek Road, Peachtree City.

This pet-centric evening will have live music, food, a silent auction, vendors, a pet psychic and the auctioning of a professionally trained PAWS Atlanta dog. Attire is hippie elegance. Sponsored by Jabula Dog Academy, the proceeds will go toward a new training center at PAWS Atlanta to help prepare the dogs for adoption. 5-9 p.m. Nov. 2 at LITKitchen, 433C Bishop St., Atlanta. Tickets $35 in advance, $45 at the door. Tickets available at www.pawsatlanta.org or 770-593-1155.

A church service complete with music and prayers will be offered for animals at 2 p.m. today at the Historic Log Cabin Community Church in Smyrna. Individual blessings also available. Love offerings for the Humane Society of Cobb County will be accepted. 2699 Log Cabin Drive. Info: www.logcabinchurch.com or 404-351-1912.

Pet photo contest

There’s only a few days left to enter the Spooky Tails online photo contest by Chihuahua Rescue of Georgia. Submit the best scary or fall photo of your pet (any breed or species) for $10 by Saturday. The winner gets a charcoal pet portrait by local artist Erica Cain. Second prize is a holiday photo session, while third place is a $25 gift certificate to a local pet store. Enter at chihuahuarescuega.com.